Gun Control Bills
Pre-Filed for 2019 Legislative Session
NRA-ILA
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
While the New Mexico Legislature will not convene for its
60-day Regular Session until January 15, anti-gun lawmakers who support
Bloomberg’s radical gun control agenda have already started pre-filing
unprecedented attacks on your Second Amendment rights. The bill
introduction deadline is February 14 and we will continue to update you as more
firearm-related bills are filed. Here’s what New Mexico gun owners are
facing so far in the Roundhouse:
First on the list are two bills regarding "universal"
background checks similar to those which legislators rejected in 2017
– House Bill 8, sponsored by Rep. Debra Sarinana, and its counterpart Senate
Bill 8, sponsored by Senators Richard Martinez and Peter Wirth. These
measures would ban all private firearms sales between law-abiding individuals. Gun
owners will be forced to pay undetermined fees and obtain government approval
before selling firearms to family members, friends, neighbors and co-workers,
or fellow hunters, competitive shooters and gun club members. Such proposals
will have no impact on crime and are unenforceable without gun
registration. House Bill 40, by Representative Miguel Garcia,
would require criminal records checks on private firearms sales at gun shows –
a favorite target of the gun control crowd.
House Bill 83, extreme risk protection order or “red
flag” legislation, sponsored by Representative Damon Ely, would authorize
the seizure of firearms and ammunition from individuals without due process.
Unchallenged statements made by a petitioner before a judge, alleging that someone
is a danger to themselves or others in an ex parte proceeding -- prior to any
formal court hearing at which the respondent can be represented by counsel and
present counter evidence -- would be sufficient for law enforcement to enter
that person's home and confiscate their private property.
House Bill 130, sponsored by Rep. Linda Trujillo,
proposes to make gun owners criminally and civilly liable if a child gains
unsupervised access to an unsecured firearm. New Mexico already has a first
degree felony child abuse statute on the books to hold adults accountable for
putting children's lives or health at risk in any manner. The tools exist to
charge and prosecute parents or guardians in appropriate cases. Education is
the key to protecting gun owners and their kids, not a state mandate on how one
stores a firearm in his or her home.
Don't sit idly by and watch your freedoms disappear. Sign
up as an NRA Frontlines volunteer
and get at least three fellow gun owners to also sign up to receive timely
legislative alerts on firearm-related bills during this upcoming session. Make
plans to attend committee hearings on these bills at the Roundhouse when
NRA-ILA notifies you of the place and location. And contact your state
lawmakers before and during session urging them to OPPOSE these measures.
A large number of freshman State House members have not
taken office yet and do not currently have contact information at the
Roundhouse. The make-up of the State Senate basically remains the same as last
session. Please begin contacting your State Senators and
urge them to OPPOSE bills that ban private gun sales between law-abiding
individuals, OPPOSE red flag legislation that allows for the confiscation of
firearms without due process and to OPPOSE proposals that duplicate the current
child abuse statute to create specific, lesser offenses involving access to
firearms in the home. Make sure you put bill numbers in the subject line
of your emails.
Please also contact the office of Governor Michelle Lujan
Grisham, who has expressed support for all of these measures, and politely
and respectfully let her know that you OPPOSE them. Make sure you put
bill numbers in the subject line of your emails.
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