On guns: Lead, follow or get out of the way
What if it had been Santa Fe, N.M.? What would we be saying then?
The phone calls to the Mayor’s Office started around 8 a.m., shortly after I got to work. First it was NPR, then other national news media. Then an email arrived from a commissioner in Parkland, Fla., expressing sympathy and solidarity. We explained that the tragic, senseless loss of lives had happened at Santa Fe High in Santa Fe, Texas, not Santa Fe, New Mexico. This time, that is. But what if it had been Santa Fe, N.M.? What would we be saying then?
We’d be expressing sorrow, sadness, heartbreak and anger at another inexplicable, senseless slaughter. We’d be shaking our heads. What do you say to a parent who has lost a child to gun violence? What do you say to students who now go to school more worried about a random act of gun violence in the hallway than an unexpected pop quiz in a history class? We’d be reduced to explaining why we haven’t done anything to prevent these insane acts of murder from happening here.
We’d have to say that the National Rifle Association swept into our state in 1986 to amend the New Mexico Constitution to pre-empt local governments from passing any gun laws more strict than those at the state level. We’d have to say that New Mexico has some of the most lax gun laws in the nation.
New Mexico doesn’t limit the number of guns that may be purchased at one time, doesn’t prohibit people already convicted of domestic violence under a protective order from purchasing or owning a gun, doesn’t even prohibit the possession of assault weapons.
We’d have to say that in 2016, New Mexico had the eighth-highest number of gun deaths per capita and the 15th highest rate of crime gun exports in the nation — that means guns sold in New Mexico are being used to commit crimes in other states at a rate that puts us 15th-highest in the country.
I don’t want to have to say any of those things.
Instead, here’s what I’m saying to the governor and the state Legislature: When it comes to guns and gun violence, lead, follow or get out of the way. If you’re going to pre-empt us at the local level from enacting sensible legislation against gun violence, then do something yourselves. If you’re not going to do anything, then give us back our local control so we can.
In the meantime, I’m going to explore what we can control. If we can’t regulate guns, we’ll look at regulating the size of magazines. After we look at magazines, we’ll look at ammunition. We’re not the only community in the country that has to deal with an NRAsponsored pre-emption measure. We’re going to reach out and see what other local governments have done and learn from them. I’m asking the City Attorney’s Office, the Santa Fe legislative delegation at the Roundhouse, our gun violence prevention community and responsible gun owners in our community to come together to come up with a local program we can enact. Because doing nothing is not an option. I’m grief-stricken from the phone calls that came into the Mayor’s Office about Santa Fe, Texas. I never want to go to work and have those awful phone calls be about Santa Fe, New Mexico.