Bump stock ban proposed
No indication if governor will allow bill to be heard in ’18
A gunman who opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers in Las Vegas, Nev., in a massacre two months ago that left 58 people dead and hundreds injured used an attachment known as a “bump stock” that turns semi-automatic weapons into rapidfire guns.
In response to the mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip, a New Mexico lawmaker is proposing a bill to ban the possession of such devices in the state.
“I think it’s clear that the carnage in Las Vegas would have been greatly reduced had he not had these devices,” state Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo, said Friday about the shooter. “He still could have launched his attack and killed people — no doubt — but the level of carnage in that attack was unprecedented, and it’s not necessary to have these devices available.”
McQueen filed his bill Friday morning and then hand-delivered a letter to Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s office requesting an executive message to allow the bill to be considered during the upcoming budgetary legislative session.
“While we can’t prevent all gun vio-
lence, this is certainly one small step we can take to protect the public without infringing on the constitutionally protected right to bear arms,” McQueen wrote in the letter. “I believe this is a commonsense bill that even gunrights advocates should agree with.”
A spokesman for Martinez did not return a message seeking comment, and McQueen said he has no indication whether the governor, a former district attorney, will allow House Bill 17 to be heard. Under the proposed bill, possession of a bump stock would be a fourth-degree felony.
Earlier this year, the governor vetoed a bill that would have required certain domestic abusers to surrender their guns.
Harry Eberts, co-president of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, said McQueen’s bill would take the simple step of banning a device that “allows somebody to massacre all those people and wreck lives forever by making their own rapid-fire weapon.”
“We never heard of ‘bump stocks’ before Las Vegas, and now that’s a word we have to contend with,” said Eberts, the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Santa Fe. “I just hope that we don’t have to hear it much anymore, that we just ban those things.”
Miranda Viscoli, the other co-president, said her group commended McQueen “for putting forth this important piece of legislation.”
“Bump stocks are a dangerous accessory that have no business being legal in any community in our country,” she said.
In the mass shooting in Las Vegas, 12 of the gunman’s rifles were modified with a bump stock, enabling them to fire faster.
Efforts to reach the National Rifle Association for comment late Friday were unsuccessful. But after the shooting in Las Vegas, the NRA called on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to “immediately review” whether such devices comply with federal law.
“The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semiautomatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations,” the organization said in a statement after the massacre. “In an increasingly dangerous world, the NRA remains focused on our mission: strengthening Americans’ Second Amendment freedom to defend themselves, their families and their communities.”
In his letter to the governor and in an interview, McQueen said the proposed ban is not a cure-all for gun violence.
“The idea that we have to solve all gun violence in one full swoop is a fallacy,” he said. “We should do what we can. I would describe this as a small step. I think there’s a lot more to be done, but I think this is an important step.”