NMSSA Gun Legislative Alert

 

On Monday, the House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hear HB9, the firearm owner liability bill. The bill creates criminal penalties for a gun owner if their firearm is accessed by a minor without the gun owners permission. Besides being unnecessary, as an adult can already be charged with a crime if they place a minor in a harmful situation through New Mexico's child endangerment laws, the bill would make it easy to target gun owners through civil fines. In the bill, a petition for a civil fine of $1,000 can be brought against an offending gun owner by anyone who is the parent or guardian of a minor. The committee meeting is scheduled to start at 1:30pm, the bill is the last on the agenda for the day. Here is the link to testify before the committee.  Today, HB68 was heard before the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee. It is an "omnibus" crime bill with multiple proposed changes to New Mexico Criminal Law. Today, the bill was amended to remove the proposed changes to firearm possession in "school zones." This is a positive change we had lobbied for. There are still some parts of the bill where we would like to see changes made, but the school zone language was our primary concern. The bill passed the committee 3-2 and now heads to House Judiciary Committee. We are closely tracking HB156, the proposed ban on firearm magazines that hold more than 15 rounds. We will send an alert as soon as we have any details on when the bill may be heard. It is currently in the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee. Below is the contact information for both the House Judiciary Committee and the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee. Additionally, here is a form email we developed with our partners at Better Together NM you can use to email your representatives to ask them to oppose HB9 and HB156. House Judiciary Committee, they will hear HB9 on Monday. We are OPPOSED to the bill. Representative Gail Chasey - (D) (505) 986-4411 gail@gailchasey.com Representative Micaela Lara Cadena - (D) (505) 986-4210 micaela.cadena@nmlegis.gov Representative Eliseo Lee Alcon - (D) (505) 986-4416 eliseo.alcon@nmlegis.gov Representative Christine Chandler - (D) (505) 986-4420 christine.chandler@nmlegis.gov Representative Zachary J. Cook - (R) (505) 986-4221 zachary.cook@nmlegis.gov Representative Brian Egolf - (D) (505) 986-4782 brian.egolf@nmlegis.gov Representative Daymon Ely - (D) (505) 986-4243 daymon.ely@nmlegis.gov Representative Georgene Louis - (D) (505) 986-4329 georgene.louis@nmlegis.gov Representative Matthew McQueen - (D) (505) 986-4423 matthew.mcqueen@nmlegis.gov Representative Greg Nibert - (R) (505) 986-4211 greg.nibert@nmlegis.gov Representative William "Bill" R. Rehm - (R) (505) 986-4214 bill.rehm@nmlegis.gov Representative James G. Townsend - (R) (505) 986-4758 townsend@pvtn.net  House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee, this is where HB156 currently is. We are OPPOSED to the bill. Joanne Ferrary (D) joanne.ferrary@nmlegis.gov (505) 986-4844 Andrea Romero (D)  andrea@andrearomero.com (505) 986-4243 Liz Thompson (D) liz.thomson@nmlegis.gov (505) 986-4425 Stefani Lord (R) stefani.lord@nmlegis.gov (505) 986-4453 Randall Pettigrew (R) randall.pettigrew@nmlegis.gov (505) 986-4467