BOISE - The publisher and editor at the Times-News say they simply wanted to challenge readers with Friday's edition.

So one week after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school, the newspaper that serves Twin Falls and the Magic Valley opted for a very different approach with its front page.

Friday's front cover contains no photographs or graphics, no sweeping headlines or any breaking local, state or national news.

Instead, the newspaper devoted the entire page to a column entitled "It's Complicated" that urges Americans to begin immediately debating and developing a comprehensive strategy for quelling gun violence and preventing another tragedy.

"Are mass shootings a mental health issue? Are mass school shootings a school security issue? Are mass shootings a gun issue?" writes publisher John Pfiefer. "Only narrow-minded ideologues would ever consider any answer other than "Yes" to ALL of the above."

Underneath the column, the newspaper published the names and birthdays of each person killed in the shooting last Friday in Newtown, Conn., along with "It's Complicated" as a suggested epitaph on each of their graves.

For any newspaper, the front page is the most valuable piece of real estate, and editors and designers spend hours each day laying out the page and determining the stories, headlines and photos worthy of that space. Typically, columns like Pfeifer's are reserved for the opinion page, deep inside the front section.

Editor Autum Agar said she and Pfeifer talked about the column for three days, what it should say and how it should balance its appeal for action with the cultural and political support of firearms and the 2nd Amendment in Idaho.

"When I read it ... I knew right away I wanted to dedicate the whole front page to it," said Agar. "We also felt if we ran any kind of art or other stories with it, those would just take away from the message. It was risky to put it on the front page, but worth it."

Reaction among readers has been mixed. So far, not a single subscriber has been outraged or offended enough to discontinue service.

Pfeifer, the newspaper's publisher for the last four years, uses the first paragraphs of the column recounting his experience as publisher at the Daily Chronicle in Dekalb, Ill., during the 2008 deadly shooting rampage at Northern Illinois University that left five dead and 17 injured.

In the immediate aftermath of that shooting, Pfeifer said he was convinced the political and public debate about gun violence should be put on hold, at least until victims and the community had a chance to mourn and heal. Now, time and a fresh series of gun related killing sprees has changed his perspective.

"You reach a point where you think enough is enough," he said. "That's when the idea of a column like the one we published developed in my head."

"Some readers have been challenged by it, if the inbox of my email is any indication," Pfeifer said. "I feel good to the extent that people read through it, no matter what their comments were. In that way, it accomplished the goal of getting people to think more about it."