New Mexico Gun Control Group Explains Why It Opposed Semi-Auto Ban

After New Mexico Democrats failed to pass a bill that would have banned virtually every semi-automatic centerfire rifle on the market and imposed a wide variety of new and expensive mandates on federally licensed firearm dealers in the state, the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety issued a statement "condemning" the House of Representatives for "its shameful refusal to advance SB 17... despite overwhelming public support." 

Support for the bill was hardly overwhelming during public testimony on SB 17, where opponents easily outnumbered supporters. In fact, the biggest state-level gun control group in New Mexico wasn't in favor of the legislation. Miranda Viscoli, head of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, told reporters in the final days of the session that she was concerned the broad language in SB 17 would make it susceptible to a court challenge, and could even be the vehicle the Supreme Court uses to overturn bans on so-called assault weapons nationwide. 

Viscoli elaborated on those concerns in a recent post on Facebook, saying:

When SB17 was recently debated in the state legislature, we looked deeply into its possible implications for all segments of our community, not only for today but for the long run. We take this responsibility seriously. The more we examined SB17 and listened to the concerns of New Mexicans, the clearer it became that this bill would have unintended consequences. Our political and legal landscapes have shifted, and we must adapt accordingly. We saw the effects of this shift when the Tenth Circuit struck down New Mexico’s seven-day waiting period law in 2025.

Because of the broad sales prohibitions included in the bill, SB17 faced an immediate risk of being struck down in court. Such a reversal would not only erode public confidence but also undermine future efforts to pass sustainable gun violence prevention legislation, potentially setting our movement back by years.

Furthermore, the window between the bill’s signing and its inevitable legal challenge would likely trigger a "panic-buying" surge, flooding our communities with the very weapons this bill seeks to regulate, much like the surges witnessed following Sandy Hook and the onset of COVID-19.

We also risk falling into a national legal trap. We believe the U.S. Supreme Court is actively seeking cases like this; a rapid succession of Circuit Court strikes against state-level bans provides the Court with the momentum to deliver a definitive, nationwide ruling. We saw this play out with the Heller decision.

Attempting to combine SB17 with fixes to Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) issues created additional complications. Rolling two or even three bills into one piece of legislation (FFL regulations, a firearms ban, and magazine limitations) during an elections year and a thirty-day budget session created unprecedented divisiveness and confusion. After years of building a trusting relationship with the gun-owning community, we realized this approach threatened to undo over a decade of progress in a single stroke.

Gun reform is much more than just lawmaking; it is community building and the shifting of cultural norms. It requires education and consensus. We stepped back to prioritize the long-term relationships and community trust that are essential to passing lasting, common-sense gun safety measures.

Of course, we want gun violence to cease. We want weapons out of dangerous hands and an end to the fear that our children might be shot. But sometimes, no matter how good a bill looks on the surface, it may ultimately set us back. We believe SB17 would prevent a better, more consensus-driven bill from moving forward. We continue to work toward such a solution and will not stop until we find the best path for the safety and wellbeing of all New Mexicans.

Viscoli doesn't call out Everytown by name, but her comments on "community building" and "long-term relationships" seem to be a dig at Everytown lobbyists who parachuted into the state to push for SB 17 (and to allegedly have a hand in writing the bill as well). 

From a gun control activist perspective, Viscoli's comments do make some sense. The broader the ban, the harder it is to justify, and SB 17 would have imposed the broadest ban on semi-automatic firearms in U.S. history. 

The bill's authors had tried before to get a gun ban bill approved by the legislature, and I suspect that they included the gun dealer language in an attempt to give Democrat lawmakers another reason to vote for the bill. In doing so, though, the authors made the bill even more complex, and there were a couple of technical issues with the bill that helped to keep it bottled up in committee. 

I disagree with Viscoli about the need for any kind of gun ban, but I have to give her some credit for not kowtowing to Everytown. I'm hopeful that New Mexico Democrats will once again let all gun ban legislation wither on the vine next session, but New Mexico Second Amendment advocates should prepare to be just as engaged and involved as they were this year if they want to keep their rights intact. 

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