The tension between business rights and public safety is at the heart of Monterey’s debate on gun shops.

Katie Rodriguez here, reflecting on the Netflix drama series Monsters—an anthology where each season follows different “monstrous figures,” including Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Gein.

I just finished watching the season on Lyle and Erik Menendez, brothers known for the murder of their parents in Los Angeles in 1989. Half of the show is a portrayal of who Lyle and Erik are as people—or who the media believes they are, both the good and the bad—while the other half centers on the subsequent and extremely controversial trial.

While reading my colleague Erik Chalhoub’s story on a proposed ordinance to limit gun shops in the City of Monterey, I thought of parts of this show that detail what went into the Menendez brothers’ decision to purchase shotguns and how they executed that plan.

The series, though clearly a dramatization of the real events (some of which remain up for debate), provides commentary on how easy it can be to purchase firearms: Erik was 18 years old and Lyle was 21 when they bought the guns they used to kill their parents two days later. They claimed to have bought the guns at a Big 5 Sporting Goods, where Erik used a fake ID to purchase. Reportedly, they initially wanted handguns but didn’t want to wait out the two-week waiting period. 

While watching the show I was struck by how casually gun stores were portrayed as just another place of business. Like grocery shopping, you go in for what you need, and then you leave. The Menendez brothers engage in disturbingly light conversations with a cashier about which guns would work best to kill someone. Guns are just merchandise—and that talk is just business—until someone pulls the trigger.

The tension between business rights and public safety is at the heart of Chalhoub’s reporting on the proposed ordinance in Monterey. In 2024, planning officials approved a gun shop at Ocean Avenue and Third Street, as city zoning codes don’t regulate firearm businesses. And, that business “checked all the boxes.”

He writes about how the local community responded strongly, raising an alarm to city council and asking them to reconsider given the new gun shop would be in extremely close proximity to a preschool and nearby neighborhoods.

If passed, the ordinance recommended by the Planning Commission would result in major changes in where gun shops can operate, and may impose changes on existing businesses as well.

You can read more about this story in this week’s print newspaper, or online here.