Liberals And Firearms

Two bills are proposed this legislative session, HB50 and HB100, one which addresses magazine capacity and the other a 14-day waiting period for new firearm purchases. Predictably, both bills are brought forth by Democrats (for the record, I'm a registered Independent).

HB50, presented by Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-ABQ) seeks legislation making it a felony to possess, use, manufacture, import, purchase, sell, loan, borrow or transfer a magazine or similar device capable of holding 10 or more rounds of ammunition in the state. Some media sources are describing a "large capacity magazine" as one that holds 10 or more rounds. Says who? Isn't that a matter of perspective? To me a large capacity magazine is a drum that holds 50-100 rounds. It's similar to the mentality that labels any semi-automatic rifle as an "assault weapon."

But HB50 isn't really about magazine capacity. It's about firearms that use them. Ban the magazine and make it a felony to possess, and who is going to buy the firearm? Rifles and pistols are equally affected. It's nothing more than an end run designed to eradicate the sales of semiautomatic firearms in the state of New Mexico. Very few manufacturers of magazines make any designed to hold nine or fewer bullets. I found a few that make a five-round magazine for rifles. And there is no grandfather clause for those of us who legally purchased and possessed those types of magazines and have had them for years.

Media have reached out to Caballero for an interview and she's not responding.

HB100 is sponsored by Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe). It would require a 14-day waiting period for persons wanting to purchase a firearm. It also includes a requirement for the seller to hold a federal firearms license and limit the transaction fee to $35. The rule would not apply to law enforcement, anyone already holding a current firearms license, or family members.

"The idea for the waiting period law is essentially a common-sense way to prevent impulsive acts of gun violence from taking place," said Romero.

So the rationale is that if you are suicidal and have an itch to blow your brains out, making you wait 14 days to kill yourself is the solution? Because suicides only happen with firearms, right? Wrong. I certainly attended suicides over my career that involved firearms but I cannot think of one where the person purchased a gun for that specific purpose. In fact, all of those suicides were committed by persons who already owned the gun. And for the record, Ms. Romero and anyone else with like-minded thinking, suicides also happen without the use of firearms. Shall we impose a 14-day waiting period on ropes, knives, razor blades, drugs (legal and otherwise), vehicle purchases, or even walking out to the middle of the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge? See the absurdity?

So, what about the angry person who wants to kill someone and goes to the local firearms store to buy a gun to commit the crime? My response to that is, show me one documented case in the state of New Mexico where that has happened. Cops see plenty of gun violence, almost all of it committed by people with criminal records, and usually career criminals involved in gang-related activity, with nearly all those firearms acquired illegally with no 14-day waiting period. And in cases of domestic-related violence where a firearm was used I did not in one incident ever investigate a situation where the offender had gone out and bought the firearm for that purpose. The firearms were already owned.

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that in the last decade we seem to be rife with politicians, state and local, who want to make New Mexico the next California, New York or Illinois? Those three states, along with Washington, D.C., have the strictest gun control laws in the nation and yet are overwhelmed with daily gun violence that cannot be controlled no matter how much "feel good" legislation is passed and put into law. Why is that? Because criminals commit crime, not law-abiding citizens.

Magazine capacity bans and 14-day waiting periods do nothing but inconvenience people who obey the law in the first place. This is New Mexico, a sparsely populated state which has a violent crime problem in some cities thanks to "defund" politicians who rode the Antifa and BLM bandwagons back in 2020 in the hopes of getting votes. Shame on all of them. All that was accomplished was an exodus of law enforcement to other occupations and difficulty recruiting for the vacated positions. Will liberal politicians never learn?

Stop the nonsense.

Semper Fi.