New Mexico's legislature is supposed to adjourn at noon on Thursday, and the next 48 hours are going to be a chaotic rush to move bills before the deadline. Gun owners and FFLs in the state got a small bit of good news early Tuesday morning, when a House committee delayed a vote on SB 17, but it's still far too soon to declare victory.
The House Judiciary committee didn't take up the sweeping gun ban and gun dealer bill until late Monday evening, and after about an hour of discussion decided to hold off on taking any action on the legislation until members could read through and better understand multiple amendments that were offered.
If the committee meets again, which could happen as early as today, they could pass the legislation as is and send it on to the House floor, though there were several technical issues that were brought up during Monday's hearing that gave even some supporters of the legislation concern. One of them is the language in SB 17 requiring FFLs to make the Form 4473s that gun buyers must fill out available to local law enforcement for inspection at any time. Because those forms are from the ATF and not any state agency, they're arguably off limits to local and state police without a warrant, or at least the cooperation of the federal government.
If the committee decides to amend SB 17 to address some of those concerns, it would still have to go back to the state Senate for a concurrence vote even if the House approves the measure, and once again the clock comes into play.
There is another potential stumbling block for SB 17: not every gun control activist in the state is fully on board.
Miranda Viscoli, executive director of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, said the organization supports the sponsors’ goals, but the legislation is “legally vulnerable and likely to backfire.”
“By passing a ban this broad, we are handing the U.S. Supreme Court a perfect opportunity to deliver a definitive, nationwide ruling against state-level firearm restrictions,” she said. “Beyond the legal risk, the bill’s immediate effect will likely be a surge in panic buying of the exact weapons this bill is trying to limit.”
New Mexico's 7-day waiting period was recently ruled unconstitutional by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and Viscoli is concerned that the circuit court could do the same with the ban on all gas-operated semi-automatic centerfire firearms, which would create a split in the lower courts on the constitutionality of "assault weapon" bans and become a vehicle for SCOTUS to strike down similar bans nationwide.
New Mexico Shooting Sports Association's Zach Fort tells Bearing Arms that Viscoli's concerns may have an impact on some Democrat members of the House, but he cautions that gun owners need to keep up their pressure on lawmakers until the end of the session. If SB 17 starts moving, it could get approved by the House and even receive a concurrence vote in the Senate (if necessary) in just a few hours, so gun owners and FFLs can't let down their guard or stop their legislative outreach yet. Any delay is a good thing and a positive development, but with two days left in the session there's still plenty of time for anti-gun lawmakers to adopt the broadest gun ban in the nation.
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