Democrats in New Mexico’s House of Representatives are weighing an “assault weapons” ban and two-week waiting period on gun purchases, along with other requirements that closely mirror controls that have been in place in California for years.
On January 13, 2024, Breitbart News reported that New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) was pushing the two week waiting period and other controls, including the ability for New Mexicans to sue gun manufacturers.
Grisham also wanted an expansion of gun-free zones in which even licensed concealed carriers would be prohibited from being armed for self-defense.
The Los Alamos Daily Post indicated that Democrats in the NM House have taken up the majority of the gun controls supported by Grisham and, late last week, passed three of them out of committee. The three bills included the “assault weapons” ban, the two week waiting period, and a control that would “raise the age to legally buy or possess an automatic or semiautomatic firearm from 18 to 21.”
One aspect of the “assault weapons” ban “would require semi-automatic rifles to have permanently fixed magazines of no more than 10 rounds.”
RELATED — AWR Hawkins: Why Gun Control Is Not the Solution to Mass Shootings
Rep. Andrea Romero (D), one of the bill’s sponsors, claims the limit on ammunition capacity would prevent mass shootings. Romero did not mention that the shooter in one of our nation’s most high-profile shootings–the February 14, 2018, Parkland high school shooting–reportedly used only 10-round magazines.
On March 1, 2018, the Miami Herald noted that Florida state Sen. Laura Book (D) indicated the Parkland shooter “went in with only 10-round magazines because larger [magazines] would not fit in his duffel bag.”
Romero also did not mention mass shootings like the one that occurred on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16, 2007. That attacker in the Virginia Tech incident used handguns instead of rifles and killed nearly twice as many innocents as were killed at Parkland.
Also, California has had an “assault weapons” ban for more than three decades, yet California led the nation in “active shooter incidents” in 2021.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a Turning Point USA Ambassador, and a pro-staffer for Pulsar Night Vision. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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