Is your hometown newspaper an accomplice in the horror of at least five school shootings in America so far this year?

That’s the question we must ask ourselves as more than one letter to the editor has implied it.

A local gun and ammunition dealer regularly runs advertising in this newspaper, and some of our readers object to the notion that such tools would be marketed in Jefferson County.

Especially given the heinous acts that blot the national media landscape.

And we cannot insulate ourselves in the false belief that such a thing couldn’t happen here.

We take these questions seriously, as we do the rights of an independent business owner who has found that advertising in The Leader – yes, advertising guns and ammunition and silencers – works.

In 1970, Congress passed, and President Richard Nixon signed into law, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, which banned advertising of cigarettes on radio and television. Most readers can recall a time when smoke filled our cafes and pubs. Some readers remember when tobacco smoke filled the hallways of our public schools.

So we can imagine a future when advertising guns and ammunition becomes illegal – and when fewer and fewer people have an interest in owning them.

This isn’t the first time this newspaper has grappled with this problem, and we have worked with, and will continue to work with, this advertiser to try to help them market their wares in a manner that is sensitive to these issues.

For some, it is not possible to sensitively market those products – as may be the case for certain drugs, alcohol or other legal wares. It’s a moral and ethical dilemma we battle with every day because advertisers trade on our credibility. Every time an ad runs in the paper, we lend them a bit of that credibility. We avoid editing our readers or our advertisers within reason. Sometimes those waters are murky.

Guns have a place in our history. People in the Northwest use weapons for hunting, sport and putting food on the table. While not popular with a number of our readers, guns in our homes have been a way of life for centuries.

The rights to peaceably assemble, to speak in public as you wish and to worship (or not worship) as you choose, have been for much of our history ensured by the Second Amendment to the Constitution. Maybe that is not a realistic sentiment in the modern age.

While this paper is not the moral arbiter for the nation, it has long been our responsibility to speak with the voice of the community. And though we disagree with the outright blanket banning of the guns that many of our residents have in their homes, we do believe in strict gun control.

That being said, please continue to send your letters. Please tell us when you believe we have missed the mark. But don’t stop there. Call your representatives and senators. Engage in rational and measured debate with your friends who stand against any and all gun reform. It is the only way the country will progress on this heated topic.

There used to be a place where opposing views could come together and compromise. This paper hopes we can find that place again.

– The Leader