More NM counties adopt resolutions against gun bills
San Juan, Eddy counties vote to oppose regulations
Two more rural counties in New Mexico have passed resolutions saying they will not require their sheriffs to enforce a series of gun-control proposals that have gone before state lawmakers.
Commissioners in San Juan County in the state’s northwest corner and in Eddy County in the southeast have adopted “Second Amendment Sanctuary County” resolutions Tuesday.
Sheriffs in Curry, Quay, Socorro and Union counties recently presented similar resolutions that commissioners have adopted in response to the proposed state legislation.
The proposals include a bill that would expand requirements for background checks on gun sales. Another measure would allow for courts to order people who are deemed to be a threat to themselves or others to temporarily surrender their guns to law enforcement.
The New Mexico Sheriffs’ Association plans to file a lawsuit in July if the bills become law, San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari said. The courts will then decide if the measures are constitutional, which Ferrari said he believes they are not.
“The main purpose of this is to get Santa Fe to wake up and listen to the rest of the state, not just the Rio Grande corridor,” Ferrari said of the resolution.
San Juan County Commissioner GloJean Todacheene, a Democrat, had the lone vote against the resolution. She said the legislation is still making its way through the state Legislature, so she needed more time to study the proposals.
The commission passed the resolution with cheers erupting from the crowd at the commission chambers in Aztec, where a 21-year-old gunman killed two students before killing himself at the city’s high school in December 2017.