New Mexico Representative Stephen Easley (Democrat- Dist. 50) of Santa Fe has introduced a bill which is a ban on ‘assault rifles’ and high capacity magazine guns. If signed into law the this legislation would take affect beginning in July and would be very similar to legislation enacted in New York. The entire bill may be read below:
No law shall abridge the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms for security and defense, for lawful hunting and recreational use and for other lawful purposes, but nothing herein shall be held to permit the carrying of concealed weapons. No municipality or county shall regulate, in any way, an incident of the right to keep and bear arms.
– New Mexico Constitution, Article II, Sec. 6
Banning these ‘assault weapons’ would in essence seriously cripple the defense of our state’s citizens. Guns are not the problem. It is the bad people who use them– often criminals who will not abide by the laws however strict they may be. This law would certainly ‘abridge the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms for security and defense, for lawful hunting and recreational use and for other lawful purposes.‘ The proposed legislation severely abridges the rights of gun-owning New Mexicans and therefore the bill is, from my understanding, unconstitutional according to the Constitution of the state of New Mexico.
YOU CAN HELP
HB-402 is currently in the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee which meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am not aware of when a public hearing for the bill will be held or whether it is yet scheduled. It could not be found on the weekly committee schedule this morning. In the future the bill may be tracked here. Contact information for the Consumer and Public Affairs Committee may be found here. Quickly sending an email and making a phone call to a handful of state Representatives could make a big difference.
The Republican Party of New Mexico has remained silent on HB-77 and HB-402. Would you like to see them respond?
Albuquerque office number: 505-298-3662
Email: administrator [at] gopnm.org
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