Legislators in New Mexico have launched an all-out assault on the Second Amendment, brazenly creating a new category of outlawed firearms along with onerous dealer restrictions – and they are moving quickly, with a proposed bill that would go into effect in just months.
Senate Bill 17, titled the “Stop Illegal Gun Trade and Extremely Dangerous Weapons Act,” is an omnibus gun control act sponsored by Democratic lawmakers (Senators Micaelita Debbie O’Malley, Andrea Romero, Heather Berghmans, Charlotte Little, and Patricia Roybal Caballero).
The bill creates a new category of firearms by fiat, which it classifies as “extremely dangerous weapons” and bans sales and transfers effective July 1, to include:
- all magazines with a capacity greater than 10 rounds
- .50 caliber rifles
- gas-operated semiautomatic firearms that accept detachable magazines
AR-15s and AK-47s are just two examples of numerous, popular gas-operated firearms that are legally owned by tens of millions of Americans, but would be outlawed by this measure. The name of the act itself is a propaganda ploy designed to play on emotions and fear – no data has been presented to prove that any of these firearms are somehow “more” (or less) dangerous than any other commonly-owned firearm.
The bill also imposes heavy, new requirements on dealers, including unrealistic response times to law-enforcement inquiries, as well as costly site hardening requirements, annual inspections, and onerous recordkeeping requirements – all of which carry real-world costs and expenditure of manpower that could be unsustainable for federally licensed dealers – a desired outcome by the bill’s proponents.
For example, the bill requires reporting of the following to the Department of Public Safety:
- multiple-firearm sales (more than one gun) within five business days
- thefts/losses within 48 hours
- a 24-hour response to law enforcement trace/document requests
- quarterly trace/inspection reports
- annual sales reports (by make/model, Form 4473 count)
In addition, the law would kneecap dealers by determining who they can employ, prohibiting them from employing anyone under 21 in the capacity of handling, selling, or delivering firearms, and imposing DPS-defined training requirements.
The death-by-1,000-cuts approach of banning firearms based on design, function, or cosmetic features violates the constitutional rights of law-abiding gun owners while doing nothing to prevent future crime. Targeting firearms dealers chills Second Amendment rights for gun owners and lawful businesses.
As with all disarmament bills, it includes a provision that exempts law enforcement and, ironically enough, an Indian nation or tribe.
