This year during the New Mexico Legislative session, multiple bills have been put forth regarding firearm-related legislation. This comes as New Mexico’s firearm-related deaths are on the rise, with a jump of 55% from 2010 to 2020, according to the New Mexico Department of Health.
Miranda Viscoli is the Co-President of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, a nonprofit organization that advocates for a reduction in firearm injury and death. She said that she’s in favor of house bill 9, which would require gun owners to keep guns stored in a manner that would keep them away from children, and house bill 100, which would enact a 14-day waiting period for the purchase of new firearms. Both bills are sponsored exclusively by Democratic representatives.
“You know, gun ownership isn’t going away, it probably shouldn’t go away. But how do we live with the idea of gun ownership and people being able to own guns, but at the same time come to the table and [say] ‘hey guys, here are some common sense solutions that will save lives,’” Viscoli said.
According to fiscal impact reports (FIRs) prepared by the Legislative Finance Committee, the yearly cost to New Mexico for convictions would be at least $9,600 per inmate for County jails, and at least $26,600 per inmate for the New Mexico Corrections Department.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez visited Las Cruces recently to speak with local leaders and residents about issues facing Southern New Mexico. Although he said he is in favor of House Bill 9, he says his focus is on how the Attorney General’s Office can help prosecute gun crimes in a practical and efficient way.
“There are a lot of things that we can do in terms of new law enforcement strategies. One of the things that we put into our budget was a request for funding for a crime gun intelligence center. That actually would result in funding to purchase new equipment for the Las Cruces area so that we could actually collect casings from crime scenes, and then analyze whether or not that had been connected with a gun that was used in other crimes across county boundaries, or in other jurisdictions,” Torrez said. “What that will do is enable us to see in real-time which crime guns are being used in which communities, and importantly, where those guns are coming from. If we’re able to pass that funding, we’ll be the second state in the entire country to have a state-wide crime gun intelligence center.”
Doña Ana County Sheriff Kim Stewart said that firearm legislation is meant to keep New Mexicans safe, but added much of the proposed legislation is just not enforceable from a law enforcement perspective.
“How would we enforce that?” Stewart asked. “We’re going to be stopping people and say, ‘give me your magazine, I want to count how many rounds you have in the gun.’ Some of this is a very high degree of impossibility to do anything about. So you have to ask yourself if we’re doing this for reasons of the greater good, or are we just doing it to fill space?”
Stewart said that she is also in favor of house bill 9, but said house bill 100 which would create a 14-day waiting period for gun buyers, likely won’t have the effect that legislators are hoping for.
“Some of these obligations in the end fall back to the sheriff. As for us, that would be a [lot] to do these background investigations. So it’s unclear from that particular legislation who would even do it," Stewart said. "Again, 400 million guns, 350 million people, if you need a gun, you’ll get one pretty quickly. Waiting two more weeks or whatever, it’s fine intentions, I get it, but it’s not going to have the impact I think these well-meaning people want.”
As of Feb. 9, house bill 9 was reported by the House Judiciary Committee with a do-pass recommendation, and house bill 100 was reported by the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee with a do-pass recommendation. The New Mexico legislative session goes until March 18.
