bill in this year’s legislative session

The New Mexico Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday evening advanced a bill that would more closely regulate gun dealers across the state.

Senate Bill 17, known as the “Stop Illegal Gun Trade and Extremely Dangerous Weapons Act,” emerged in December after Democratic lawmakers reviewed a report from advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, which found New Mexico had an outsized problem with gun trafficking. Many of the guns found at New Mexico crime scenes were recovered within 50 miles of the retailer that initially sold them, the report says.

SB17 particularly targets straw purchases — in which someone buys a gun from a reputable retailer and then sells it under the table to someone who is not legally allowed to own a firearm. It would require gun stores to maintain thorough records of each sale, only employ people 21 or older and put employees through an annual training program. 

“New Mexico has a high number of crime guns and a high number of gun crimes,” bill co-sponsor Rep. Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe) said during the hearing. “This is not an out-of-state problem. It’s a supply chain problem.”

Currently, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives trains gun store owners on red flags for straw purchases, such as someone buying guns in bulk, or a single person breaking away from a group in a gun store to purchase the weapon. SB17 would extend that training beyond store owners to employees who are on the sales floor. It would also ban the sale of certain weapons. 

The bill had previously been scheduled to be heard Monday but was postponed as the committee took up discussions on the Immigrant Safety Act. Many of the members of the public who spoke in opposition to the bill Wednesday night, including ranchers and New Mexico sheriffs, said firearms are “a tool.” The real problems, they argued, are lax laws and lacking enforcement. 

“What the opposition should understand is it doesn’t take away your Second Amendment,” Marianna Mitchem, Everytown for Gun Safety senior firearms industry adviser and a former ATF official, told Source NM ahead of the committee hearing. She anticipated that opponents would refer to guns as tools and disputed that characterization.

“You don’t go to Home Depot and buy 10 hammers,” she said.

Much like when the bill previously cleared the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee on a 6-4 vote, Republican committee members Wednesday night questioned the proposal’s constitutionality. 

In a statement after the vote, Sen. Crystal Brantley (R-Elephant Butte) said the measure showed “total disregard for our Constitution and our small businesses.”

The Democrat committee chair shared that sentiment, despite voting for the legislation.

“I think that the provisions of the bill that relate to dealer regulations are very appropriate, and I could support those,” Committee Chair Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces) said after the vote. But, he added, “I think this is unconstitutional.”