In 2023 New Mexico lawmakers adopted a gun storage statute called "Bennie's Law". Named after Bennie Hargrove, a 13-year-old Albuquerque resident who was shot and killed by a classmate who brought his dad's gun to school, the law allows prosecutors to bring charges against parents or guardians if a child in their care accesses their firearms.
As KRQE reports, despite the widespread attention given to the law during the 2023 legislative session and claims by supporters that it would prevent unauthorized access to guns by juveniles, the law has seen little use since it took effect.
In the year and a half it’s been in effect, four adults across the state have been charged under Bennie’s Law. One case was in Taos County while a second case was brought in Santa Fe County and will go to trial in April. The charge was also brought against defendants in separate cases in Chaves and Bernalillo Counties, but in both cases, the charge was later dropped.
So far, the charge has only gone to trial once, which was in Taos County last June. William Brown was charged after a teen was shot and killed on his Questa property allegedly by another teen there.
District Attorney Marcus Montoya was the first person to ever prosecute Bennie’s Law and acknowledges this specific case had its challenges. “In our particular case as everyone may know following this case, we didn’t actually have the murder weapon,” said Montoya, Eighth Judicial District Attorney which includes Taos County. “We did have an arsenal in the house and evidence that and testimony that it came from that house but also the gun owner and the homeowner did have gun safes on premises.”
Without the murder weapon, prosecutors could not prove the gun came from William Brown or that it was not stored safely since there was evidence of gun safes on the property. A jury found Brown not guilty of Bennie’s Law.
The fact that the law has only been invoked a handful of times and has yet to result in a successful prosecution is pretty clear evidence that Bennie's Law, no matter how well intended, isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
As KRQE reports, prosecutors have to prove that gun owners stored their firearms in a manner that negligently disregards a minor’s ability to access the firearm and a minor accessed the firearm and either displayed or brandished the firearm in a threatening manner or caused injury to the minor or another person. That's a pretty tall order, especially when the presence of a gun safe or other storage device can be used as an affirmative defense.
But there's a bigger issue with Bennie's Law: many juveniles who do get their hands on a gun aren't getting it from lawful owners, which renders the statute irrelevant.
Other district attorneys across the state have told KRQE News 13 that a big hurdle in prosecuting Bennie’s Law is tracking where a gun in a child’s possession came from. Cases since then have shown many kids get guns, sometimes stolen ones, from social media or even 3D printing.
“The accessibility to guns especially by juveniles who unlawfully have no reasons to have these guns in their possession is so prolific right now,” said Montoya. While there have not been any convictions under Bennie’s Law yet, Representative Herndon claims it has made a difference as a deterrent.
“People are thinking a lot more clearly about how they should be storing their firearms safely and not leaving them around,” said Herndon. KRQE News 13 asked if she would like to see more convictions under this statute. “I want to see more firearms stored safely,” she said.
The issue here isn't how guns are stored. It's if they're being misused by juveniles. It might be emotionally satisfying to gun control advocates to want to punish adults who don't keep their guns under lock and key, but my guess is most New Mexicans are completely unaware of Bennie's Law, so I doubt it's having any kind of deterrent effect whatsoever.
This isn't the first gun control law in New Mexico to be introduced with great fanfare only to be of little use to prosecutors. In the first year that the state's universal background check law was in place there were zero prosecutions, and there's no evidence that the law has become any more enforceable in the years since.
New Mexico's violent crime rate is well above the national average, and its embrace of gun control hasn't done anything to bring those numbers down. Instead of concentrating on legal gun owners, lawmakers in Santa Fe should be focusing their efforts on going after violent offenders, but that's a tall order for the Democratic majority in the legislature.
