The Senate Judiciary Committee passed legislation on to the Senate that allows law enforcement officials to take away a person's firearms if they are deemed a threat.
The New Mexico Political Report states the committee voted 6-5 to move the legislation to the Senate floor for consideration. The legislation would allow law enforcement to remove a person's firearms from their possessions if the person was seen as a threat to themselves or others.
Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, introduced the legislation, which Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham believes is a key piece of legislation for the state, the news agency reported.
The bill, Senate Bill 5, is also known as the Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Order Act and its opponents disagree that it will reduce gun violence.
State Sen. Mark Moores, R-Albuquerque, said the state's statute that deals with behaviorally challenged people with guns is a stronger statute than the red-flag bill because it allows law enforcement to immediately seize firearms, whereas the red-flag bill gives the person 48 hours to surrender their firearms.
“In 20 pages [of legislation] we have a much weaker law than we have in one paragraph here,” Moores told the news agency. “It is weaker, people. This is actually dangerous for us to do this. This [statute] is very immediate – not 48 hours.”
Cervantes wants the legislation passed, he says, because he wants to protect citizens like his daughters, who have a neighbor who frequently walks the streets at night carrying a gun and screaming, the news agency reported. Cervantes said when law enforcement is called, they tell concerned citizens nothing can be done because he isn't technically breaking the law.
State Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Ojo Caliente, voted against the bill, along with four Republicans. Martinez's nephew died by suicide – first attempting to take his own life by a gun and then overdosing on pills when his guns were taken away by loved ones. He said he wondered if the bill would have "any real impact" on people who were determined to die by suicide.
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