“Hey, lay off! Leave me be! Don’t come one step nearer! I’m warning you!”

Thirteen masked, male Carleton students surround the middle-aged night watchman menacingly, determined to put the fear of God in him. They are sick of his poking his high-powered flashlight into their faces and the faces of their dates on blanket parties. They are going to truss him up and toss him into Lyman Memorial Lake.

But Roy Brees is a special police officer and authorized to carry a gun.

The thirteen students move in.

Brees pulls out his revolver and fires a shot.
Burt Krayenbuhl, the leader of the students, is hit.
Rushed to the Northfield, Minnesota hospital, he dies from his wound a few days later. That fateful shot rings out on May 27, 1935.

Poor Burt Krayenbuhl. Poor Roy Brees. Poor Carleton. A student prank results in a double tragedy. The students mean no physical harm to Roy, but they want to end his habit of invading their private space on warm spring evenings in May when they are enjoying the loving arms and soft lips of their dates.

The coroner’s jury exonerates Roy who believes the students mean to truss him up and toss him into this beautiful lake. Roy can’t swim a stroke. He is terrified. He is convinced his life is in danger. He acts impulsively without intending to cause physical harm to Burt. Just a warning shot to say, “I’m serious. Don’t push me.”

After this trauma, Roy Brees is not the same man. He is haunted by remorse. The college removes him from his watchman duties and assigns him to work in the college shop, but he is a social pariah on campus. Persona non grata . Ostracized. Lonely. Why, oh why didn’t he fire that warning shot into the air? I conjecture.

In April 1936, almost a year later, Roy completes the task of painting the boiler room ceiling in the college’s heating plant. As he lowers the scaffold he suddenly slips and plunges to his death on the concrete floor thirty feet below.

In his depressed and fatigued state, was Roy careless and physically out of control? Or, was he so despondent over killing a student that he let himself slip and fall to a certain death?

We shall never know.

But, since its founding in 1866, Carleton College has never experienced a more tragic episode. Should we bury this story in dusty archives or keep it alive to make sure there is no recurrence?

In 2006, does Carleton employ a night watchman armed with a revolver that might be fired and kill again? What is Carleton’s policy on arming its security force? Did Roy Brees need a gun to serve and protect the college community in a small, peaceful Midwest town?

Carleton’s Archivist, Eric Hillemann, responds to my inquiry: “To answer your other question, Carleton today employs a number of campus security officers, but they are not armed. I am not certain, but I think it probable that security personnel on the Carleton campus have never been armed since the 1935 tragedy.”

Ironically, in searching the archives, Hillemann learned from Burt Krayenbuhl’s file that the occupation of his father, Harvey E. Krayenbuhl, was also night watchman.

The photo is the Upper Lyman Lake with Margaret Evans Hall in the background. This girl’s dormitory housed my wife, then Jean Ann Murray, in her senior year.

After living in this gated retirement community for more than twenty-five years, I cannot understand why we have about a dozen Security Department sergeants armed with 9-millimeter pistols. As far as anyone knows, none of these guns has ever had to be removed from its holster. PCM’s risk analyst Jodi Martin tells me our liability insurance premium is not affected by having armed security officers, but I do not feel secure knowing they are armed.

Recently, the California Legislature passed an amendment to the Davis-Stirling Act that governs housing associations and prohibits police-type security operations. The sergeants have lost their Glock handguns. I feel more comfortable now.

The miraculous James and Rosemary Nix Nature Center that opened to the public on March 17, 2007 is the centerpiece of the 6,600-acre Laguna Coast Wilderness Park and was made possible by the generous and farsighted half-million-dollar donation of two beautiful people who have been friends and lovers for nearly 77 years.

We thank this gracious couple for creating an exciting legacy—-especially designed to entertain and educate elementary school children on their periodic visits for a wilderness experience that will surely motivate them to become nature lovers and environmentally friendly citizens like the Nixes.

James J. Nix was born in the tiny town of Ingraham, Illinois (near Effingham) on March 2, 1918, moved to East Los Angeles in 1930 where he met Rosemary Pollock, age 10, who lived in the same apartment building. They were married on February 20, 1944, before Jim shipped out as a sergeant with the U. S. Army to Europe and saw more than enough fierce action in Northern Italy during the winter of 1944-45.

A 1939 graduate of UCLA with a degree in business administration, Jim had a 34-year career with Pacific Bell and after many promotions retired in 1980 as Manager of Customer Relations.

In the meantime, Rosemary Pollock Nix, became a legal secretary and worked at this demanding profession until she became the mother of Paul Justin Nix, now 58 and a resident of San Fernando Valley. Paul gave his parents a grandson, Damien, 30, of Santa Rosa. After Paul came Elaine Nix Roth of Saratoga, California, mother of Ryan, 32, of Huntington Beach, Christian, 30, and Katherine, 25, a USC graduate in cinema arts. Ryan fathered two great grandsons, Jackson, 5, and Luke, one. Jackson loves the James and Rosemary Nix Nature Center, which he visited recently. His hands-on experience was great fun and exciting. Jim and Rosemary are delighted to have created a permanent, living monument their great grandsons can now enjoy.

This $3.4 million, 3,000-square foot structure features four picture windows that frame dramatic views of the surrounding parklands and contains unique, interactive educational exhibits with great appeal for young people. The center is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., including holidays. Admission is free, but parking is $3. The Center is located on the west side of Laguna Canyon Road just north of the 73 Tollroad.

Jim retired in 1980, and the Nixes moved to Leisure World in September 1981 and have lived on Rayo del Sol for 26 years. Jim was president of Mutual 69 before it merged into the Third Laguna Hills Mutual and has been an active member of the American Legion, the Saddle, Dance, Travel and 110 clubs. For many years, Jim and Rosemary thoroughly enjoyed ballroom dancing at Leisure World’s Clubhouse 5. Jim loves classical music and Broadway musicals. His favorite authors are Charles Dickens and Edgar Allen Poe. His favorite movie is “Casablanca.”

Among Leisure World’s 18,000 residents are many brilliant, generous and charming people, but none more so than Jim and Rosemary Nix. The staff and board members of the Laguna Canyon Foundation are pleased and honored to know this outstanding couple and to experience the joy of working with them to create the fabulous James and Rosemary Nix Nature Center.

18 April 2007

“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to bear arms shall not be infringed.”

And here is the gun people are allowed to bear under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—-a gun used to arm a militia, not a gun for a sociopath mass murderer. If you want to own a gun, this is the gun for you—-a flintlock, single-shot, muzzle loading long rifle with which some of General George Washington’s tattered troops were fortunate enough to possess and use in battles with the British Redcoats and their Hessian mercenaries.

Not this semi-automatic handgun used by a Virginia Tech senior to go on a killing rampage. This Glock 19, a 9-millimeter pistol, would never be used to arm a militia. Dick Cheney did not use a Glock 19 to wound a fellow pheasant hunter in Texas. He used a shotgun, also an unsuitable weapon with which to arm a military force. Mr. Choi bought a Glock 19 with a credit card in Virginia, which is extremely lax in doing background checks on gun buyers. He also carried a .22 caliber pistol, but the Glock did most of the killing and is the handgun of choice for millions of gun lovers.

Until recently, the Laguna Woods Village Security Department sergeants carried Glocks. They are no longer permitted by law to do so. We are defenseless. In the 25 and one-half years we have lived in this community, I do not recall any incident where one of our thirteen sergeants removed a Glock from its holster. If an armed officer of the law is needed, we have sheriff’s police on duty.

Over the years I have lobbied in vain to disarm the sergeants, but the California State Legislature finally came to the rescue. It amended the Davis-Stirling Act, and now we don’t have Glocks or gate guards, because housing associations are no longer allowed police-like security personnel.

All handguns should be banned. The Second Amendment does not prohibit Congress from designating what kind of arms to permit. Flintlocks? Fine. Automatic weapons? Glocks? No way, José. When the sacrosanct Second Amendment was adopted, we did not have an Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard or National Guard. They replaced the so-called “well regulated militia.” Today, a militia would be an outlaw organization probably armed with Uzis.

In all the wars fought by the United States since 1776, excluding Iraq, we have recorded 651,008 battle deaths. We have experienced 1.3 million deaths by firearms in the U.S. since 1933. Data on total U. S. gun deaths have been compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics since 1979. Between 1979 and 1997, 651,697 Americans lost their lives to gun violence—-more than the total number of U.S. battle deaths from 1776 to 1991—-651,008. Among the 26 so-called developed countries, the U. S. accounts for 83% of all gun deaths.

The handgun industry is highly profitable. Congress approved the stupid invasion of Iraq that has claimed the lives of nearly 3,400 U. S. troops; but under pressure from the gun lobby it refuses to deter the ongoing, daily slaughter of our citizens with handguns.

You may keep your flintlocks, but let’s ban handguns.