A sweeping gun ban proposed by Democrats in the New Mexico legislature is drawing pushback from Republican lawmakers in the Land of Enchantment. But not enough to keep it from being approved by a key Senate committee.
Senate Bill 17 is a ban on so-called “assault-style” weapons, and would severely undermine the Second Amendment-protected rights of New Mexico gun owners.
According to the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), the measure would “unconstitutionally strip law-abiding New Mexicans of their Second Amendment rights by banning common gas-operated semiautomatic firearms, .50 caliber rifles and magazines holding more than 10 rounds under the guise of ‘extremely dangerous weapons.’”
Further, the act targets the firearms industry by “imposing excessive and costly bureaucratic mandates on local firearm dealers, including invasive ‘site hardening’ security measures and 24-hour response requirements for law enforcement trace requests,” NRA-ILA explained in an action alert.
Lastly, the measure would also compromise the privacy of peaceful citizens through centralized record-keeping of purchaser identities and serial numbers, while threatening dealers with felony charges for technical compliance errors.
The measure is officially named the “Stop the Illegal Gun Trade and Extremely Dangerous Weapons Act,” and sponsors of the bill are pushing hard to get it through the legislative process.
“We regulate alcohol and cannabis more strictly than we regulate gun dealers,” Democrat Rep. Andrea Romero, a bill co-sponsor, told the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee on January 28. Wednesday afternoon. She added that the dealer provisions were simple: “Secure your inventory, train your employees, track your sales, and stop selling military-grade weapons designed for mass casualty.”
About the only hope for New Mexico gun owners is the pro-gun Republicans in the New Mexico House and Senate. And they’re speaking out loudly against all of the provisions in the measure.
Even though they were a minority on the committee, they spoke out strongly in the committee hearing, calling the bill “unconstitutional”—a gross understatement to be sure.
“We really need to focus on the criminal element, and I think we can unite on that,” Republican Sen. Rex Wilson told the committee. “How can we do something that doesn’t punish the legal, law-abiding dealers and purchasers?”
Another person speaking out against the bill was Nancy Bennett, a Santa Fe-based firearms instructor.
“I really do have empathy for the people who suffered from gun violence. I hope they understand that we are not promoting gun violence,” Bennett said. “I really wonder what the purpose of all of this is. It’s a burden on small business people in this state and on gun owners. As people have said, you’re not addressing the source of the crime.”
Ultimately, the committee voted 6-4 to advance the bill. Whether or not opponents gain enough steam to stop the punitive measure remains to be seen. If passed by both the House and Senate, there’s little doubt that anti-gun Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham would gladly sign the measure into law.