Guns are back on the governor’s priority list this year. She and the sponsors of several defeated bills from last year hope for a better outcome, but the dynamics haven’t really changed.
In the legislative session starting Jan. 16, are:
- House Bill 127, by Rep. Reena Szczepanski, D-Santa Fe. It would raise the age to buy automatic firearms from 18 to 21.
- HB 129, by Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe. It requires a 14-day waiting period for gun purchases and completion of a federal background check.
- The GOSAFE Act, to be introduced by Romero. It’s a ban on assault weapons.
Szczepanski, a mother of two young boys who practices responsible gun ownership, said raising the age to buy semi-automatic weapons “simply prevents the firearms most capable of rapidly taking human life from falling into the hands of those most at risk of hurting themselves or others.”
Romero has said the waiting period “will help prevent a moment of crisis from becoming a tragedy, by instituting a cooling off period between firearm purchase and acquisition.” The assault weapons ban would “protect New Mexicans from the most deadly, dangerous weapons designed to inflict maximum harm on human beings.”
Last year, the governor called for an assault-weapons ban in her State of the State speech. SB 171 would have prohibited the manufacture, transfer or purchase of all automatic and semi-automatic weapons, including handguns. As such bills always do, it provoked impassioned testimony for and against. Some speakers were desperate enough to call for any step that would cut down on gun violence.
Allen Sánchez, executive director of the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, “We bury the victims. I want to repeat that. We bury them. These are real people.”
The bill passed one committee, but Senate Judiciary Committee members of both parties tabled SB 171 on questions of constitutionality.
“I don’t think the bill would remotely stand a constitutional ruling,” Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, said in a Santa Fe New Mexican story. He later tweeted that legislators had too much to do to spend time on bills the federal courts would probably strike down. Two other states had passed similar laws that faced court challenges, and the U.S. Supreme Court had previously expanded the right to bear arms.
A similar bill from last year, HB 101, aimed only at assault-style weapons. Romero, a co-sponsor, said the bill would prevent mass shootings and improve public safety by prohibiting .50-caliber assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Current owners could keep their weapons if they registered them with the State Police. HB 101 died in the House Judiciary Committee after concerns about possible Second Amendment violations.
HB 100, to impose a 14-day waiting period, made it to the House floor agenda, but time ran out before a vote, despite pressure from interest groups.
At the time, Deborah Marez-Baca, with the New Mexico chapter of Moms Demand Action, said, “Twenty-two states have waiting periods prior to possession of a firearm after purchase. Nine states already prohibit assault weapons, and 14 states prohibit high-capacity magazines.”
Republicans argued that the bill would deprive law-abiding citizens of their rights and hinder self-defense in places where police response times are slow.
SB 116, to raise the age to 21 to buy or possess semi-automatic firearms including assault weapons, died in the Senate Judiciary Committee after a series of party-line tie votes. With two weeks left in the session, Szczepanski and her co-sponsor didn’t have time to revamp the bill and get another vote in committee.
Besides the usual dueling between parties, gun debates reflect urban-rural differences. Rural legislators just don’t see the same urgency as their urban counterparts. Romero, however, doesn’t expect a replay of last year. Sponsors have learned what hindered their bills before and recalibrated.