Dear New Mexico Gun Owner:
Since the 2023 New Mexico legislative session concluded back in March, NRA-ILA has warned gun owners that the same attacks we saw then on the Second Amendment would continue during the upcoming session in January, 2024. Although this is supposed to be a 30-day “budget session,” anti-gun Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and progressive lawmakers plan to force consideration of proposals to ban commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms, limit standard capacity magazines, impose lengthy waiting periods on gun purchases, restrict firearms possession and purchases by law-abiding adults aged 18-20, and promote reckless litigation against licensed firearms manufacturers and retailers.
Over the last week, progressive elected officials in New Mexico have made it clear that they have additional radical gun control plans for 2024. Attorney General Raul Torrez, a politician repeatedly endorsed by national anti-gun organizations, issued calls for turning the state’s red flag firearms surrender law into a gun confiscation scheme by allowing police officers to directly petition courts for extreme risk protective orders (ERPOs) and to then immediately search for and seize firearms from persons subject to these orders. ERPO laws already trample on civil liberties with little or no due process, and they should be repealed — not expanded!
Also, anti-gun, leftist Mayor Alan Webber pushed a resolution through the Santa Fe City Council urging the New Mexico Legislature to rewrite Article II, Section 6 (the Right to Keep and Bear Arms provision) of the New Mexico Constitution, rip out the state firearms preemption clause, and put that enormously significant change to a popular vote. Preemption prevents a patchwork of different local firearms regulations across the state, helping ensure uniformity in gun laws wherever you live, work or travel. Without that protection, cities like Santa Fe would be empowered to adopt the most extreme gun control proposals to deny residents the ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
Prefiling of legislation for the 30-day session in 2024 begins on January 2. The Legislature convenes on January 16. Your NRA-ILA will be at the Roundhouse fighting to protect your rights, but gun owners will need to be fully-engaged in the battle against the radical progressive anti-gun agenda.
For NOW, here’s what you can do to protect your Second Amendment rights in the Land of Enchantment:
- Forward at least FIVE family members, friends, and fellow gun owners this alert and urge them to sign up at www.nrailafrontlines.com to receive FREE email and text notifications from NRA-ILA on gun control legislation that will be debated during the 2024 legislative session. Help us get the word out to gun owners and Second Amendment supporters who are NOT currently receiving this critical information!
- Become a Frontlines Activist Leader (FAL) who NRA-ILA can call on to testify before legislative committees against gun control bills, in-person at the Roundhouse or remotely via zoom, when they are scheduled for public hearings. FALs may also be asked to submit letters to the editor or opinion pieces to their local news publications and to distribute legislative information at gun shows, competitive shoots, or similar events. Please email NRA-ILA Grassroots Field Coordinator Clay Kimberling ([email protected]) for more information on signing up to be an FAL.
- Contact your State Senators and State Representatives TODAY to urge them to OPPOSE these radical gun control proposals and to target criminals instead of law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment rights!