Always of interest are the gun laws of New Mexico, and possible effects on the Shootists Holiday<\/p>\n
Gun safety bills could spark debate at Roundhouse amid rise in firearm deaths<\/a><\/p>\n SANTA FE \u2013 Over the last three years, New Mexico lawmakers have passed bills expanding background check requirements for firearm purchases and allowing guns to be seized from individuals deemed to pose a threat to themselves or others.<\/p>\n Now, with the reelection of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, more gun safety proposals are expected to be brought forward during the 60-day session that starts next month, amid a recent spike in New Mexico firearm-related deaths and after several high-profile school shootings around the nation.<\/p>\n The measures likely to be considered include raising the minimum age for purchasing certain assault rifles from 18 to 21, making the failure to safely store firearms out of children\u2019s reach a crime and creating a new office of gun violence prevention within the state Department of Health.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rep.-elect Reena Szczepanski, D-Santa Fe, who plans to sponsor the legislation that would raise the buying age for purchasing AR-15-style rifles, said New Mexico needs to keep forging ahead on a multi-faceted approach to addressing gun violence.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a huge public health crisis now for children,\u201d Szczepanski told the Journal. \u201cI think we can do this in a way gun owners can support and that addresses safety.\u201d<\/p>\n She also described the bill as aimed at closing a loophole, as New Mexico already has a minimum age of 21 to purchase semi-automatic handguns.<\/p>\n However, the firearm-focused legislation is expected to face opposition from Republican lawmakers and other groups.<\/p>\n Most New Mexico sheriffs, for instance, staunchly opposed the 2021 \u201cred flag\u201d gun law bill that allows law enforcement officers, contingent on a judge\u2019s approval, to seize guns from individuals that are found to pose an immediate safety risk.<\/p>\n Rep. Stefani Lord, R-Sandia Park, said the gun safety proposals pushed by Democratic lawmakers tend to focus on a \u201ctool\u201d used to commit crimes, but not the issues that could be driving the increase in New Mexico violent crime rates.<\/p>\n Those issues include drug addiction, mental health treatment and illicit firearm trafficking, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel the gun bills they present are consistently going after responsible gun owners and are not addressing crime issues,\u201d Lord said in an interview.<\/p>\n The legislative debate comes as New Mexico\u2019s firearm fatality rate is among the nation\u2019s highest.<\/p>\n A total of 562 state residents died in 2021 due to firearm-related injuries \u2013 up significantly from 481 firearm-related deaths in 2020, according to state Department of Health data.<\/p>\n Of that amount, more than half \u2013 or 319 cases \u2013 were classified as suicides and 243 were classified as homicides.<\/p>\n In addition, the rate of 14.9 firearm-related deaths per every 100,000 residents in 2010 nearly doubled over the last decade \u2013 there were 23 such deaths for every 100,000 residents in 2020.<\/p>\n Lujan Grisham, who won a hard-fought campaign last month against Republican Mark Ronchetti, pushed lawmakers to pass gun safety legislation during her first term as governor and a spokeswoman said Friday she plans to continue that effort during the upcoming session.<\/p>\n \u201cThe governor will pursue a robust package of common-sense gun safety legislation in the upcoming session, the details of which will be decided in the coming weeks,\u201d Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Maddy Hayden said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe governor is clear: New Mexicans are beyond sick and tired of crime, and gun violence continues to be a nationwide scourge that warrants immediate and outcomes-focused attention,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n While some firearm-related measures have won approval in recent years, however, other bills have stalled.<\/p>\n For instance, a bill proposed during this year\u2019s 30-day session to make it a crime for adults to fail to keep their firearms out of the reach of children, failed due to concerns about possible unintended consequences.<\/p>\n Rep. Pamelya Herndon, D-Albuquerque, who sponsored the bill, said she plans to try again during the upcoming session \u2013 with a more robust advocacy effort and a few tweaks aimed at addressing skeptics\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n Those changes will include indemnifying adults whose guns are obtained by minors during robberies, for instance.<\/p>\n \u201cWe addressed those and we need specific exclusions because we know people can\u2019t be in control of all situations,\u201d Herndon told the Journal.<\/p>\n She said the legislation, which stemmed from the 2021 killing of eighth-grader Bennie Hargrove at an Albuquerque middle school, is supported by a group of Albuquerque students who have mobilized against gun violence.<\/p>\n While critics have argued the firearm storage bill could place responsible gun owners in jeopardy of facing criminal charges, Herndon said that\u2019s not her intent.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not the goal to just criminalize people, but we want them to be aware of their responsibilities if they intend to be gun owners,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Bills can be prefiled starting Jan. 3 for the 60-day legislative session, which gets underway Jan. 17. Unlike during the shorter 30-day sessions held during even-numbered years, bills dealing with any type of subject issue can be proposed without approval from the governor during the longer 60-day sessions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Always of interest are the gun laws of New Mexico, and possible effects on the Shootists Holiday Gun safety bills could spark debate at Roundhouse amid rise in firearm deaths SANTA FE \u2013 Over the last three years, New Mexico lawmakers have passed bills expanding background check requirements for firearm purchases and allowing guns to … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88571"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88572,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88571\/revisions\/88572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}