Things are looking bad for New Mexico gun owners, as the Democrat-controlled state legislature pushes forward with a punitive ban on common semi-automatic firearms that gun-ban advocates call “assault weapons.”
As we reported earlier this week, the New Mexico state Senate recently passed Senate Bill 17, which would ban common gas-operated semi-automatic firearms, .50-caliber rifles virtually never used in crimes and firearm magazines holding more than 10 rounds, all under the guise of labeling them “extremely dangerous weapons.” The measure passed by a 21-17 margin, with all Republican senators and three Democrats voting against the bill.
Along with the sweeping ban, the measure also contains provisions imposing excessive and costly bureaucratic mandates on local firearm dealers, including invasive “site-hardening” security requirements and unrealistic 24-hour response deadlines for law enforcement trace requests, and compromising the privacy of lawful citizens through centralized record-keeping of purchaser identities and firearm serial numbers.
Now, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) is speaking out against the measure. In fact, CCRKBA Managing Director Andrew Gottliebe said in a press release on the legislation that it would be completely ineffective in making New Mexico citizens safer.
“Senate Bill 17, which was passed by state Senate Democrats over the weekend, would ban semi-automatic firearms and original capacity magazines, but it’s not going to prevent criminals from committing crimes,” Gottlieb said. “All this does is create the false impression that Democrats are doing something, when in reality they’re not accomplishing anything at all, except for adding burdens to firearms retailers and the law-abiding gun owners they serve.”
As Gottlieb pointed out, anti-gun Democrats are grossly mischaracterizing the guns they want to ban, as well as the citizens who own them.
“Proponents of this legislation have resorted to the usual inflammatory rhetoric we’ve come to expect, by calling these firearms and magazines ‘weapons of war,’” Gottlieb stated. “Tens of millions of law-abiding American citizens, including many New Mexicans, own such firearms and magazines, and they’re not a danger to anyone.”
Even worse, Gottliebe said, is the fact that this legislation is being pushed in the state that ranks 25th among the 50 states in terms of overall gun ownership.
“It is astonishing that this sort of legislation is being pushed to the detriment of firearms retailers and their customers, none of whom have harmed anybody,” he said. “Ratcheting down on the rights of honest people is not the way to fight crime.”
Ultimately, as the legislation moves to the state House for consideration, CCRKBA is encouraging its New Mexico members and all gun owners in the Land of Enchantment to get involved.
“We’re encouraging gun owners in New Mexico to contact their state representatives and ask them to reject this legislation,” Gottlieb concluded. “Lawmakers need to go back to the drawing board and sit down with people from the firearms community to find solutions that do not penalize honest gun owners and firearms retailers.”
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