Gun control took center stage once again at the Roundhouse Friday. House lawmakers spent several hours debating a proposed waiting period for all gun sales – one of the governor’s key public safety initiatives.
SANTA FE, N.M. — Gun control took center stage once again at the Roundhouse Friday. House lawmakers spent several hours debating a proposed waiting period for all gun sales – one of the governor’s key public safety initiatives.
The proposal, House Bill 129, cleared the House and is now moving to the Senate.
Democratic state Rep. Andrea Romero originally proposed a mandatory 14 business day waiting period for all gun sales in New Mexico – no exceptions. It’s meant to provide a sort of cooling-off period to allow for federal background checks to be completed.
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The proposal faced several changes in the committee process, including updating the time frame to calendar days instead of business days, and adding an exception for immediate family members.
On Friday, House lawmakers went a step further and slashed the proposed waiting period down to seven days. That change narrowly made it through on a 35-34 vote. Supporters suggested it was meant to be a compromise.
“A seven-day waiting period, while less of an inconvenience on our legal, responsible gun owners, would help to prevent some of the suicides that occur during that impulsive 24-hour time period,” state Rep. Meredith Dixon said.
Republican lawmakers have criticized the proposal from the beginning, arguing a mandatory waiting period will not reduce crime or the number of suicides in New Mexico. Like all gun control proposals, they say it’s unconstitutional.
It seems cutting the proposed waiting period in half only ignited those arguments Friday.
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“It went from 14, which seemed arbitrary, and now we’ve cut it in half down to seven and somehow that magically creates a beautiful balance,” said state Rep. Ryan Lane, House minority leader. “But again, if the underlying rationale is sometimes the inconvenience is worth saving a life, I don’t see why we would dare cut it in half.”
After three hours of debate, the House approved the amended proposal on a 37-33 vote – meaning several Democrats voted against the bill.
JUST IN: A proposed mandatory waiting period for firearm sales in New Mexico has crossed the halfway point.
House lawmakers amended the proposal reducing the waiting period from 14 days to 7 days before approving the bill on a narrow 37-33 vote. #nmlegis@KOB4
It’s worth noting the Senate is expected to debate its own mandatory waiting period bill soon – potentially in the next few days. Their proposal is still at 14 days and includes more exceptions.
More moisture will be moving into New Mexico through the weekend. Afternoon rain and thunderstorm chances will then increase into early next week.
Drier air moved in to end the week. A few isolated showers and storms still developed though, mainly in western New Mexico. Rain has ended tonight, but a backdoor cold front will be moving into northeastern New Mexico. This front will increase the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, and bring upslope flow along the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. That could lead to heavy rainfall over the mountains Saturday afternoon. More showers and thunderstorms will develop across the state Saturday with more monsoon moisture moving in. Locally heavy rainfall will again be possible, with Flood Watches in effect for burn scar areas.
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Even more monsoon moisture moves in Sunday and Monday, and this will bring increasing rain chances through Monday afternoon. Once again, storms will be capable of heavy rainfall each day, so flash flooding will be possible. More storms will continue into Wednesday, with the heaviest of the rain falling in western and northern parts of New Mexico. The southeast part of the state will stay the driest and hottest.
Drier weather moves in for almost all of New Mexico for the Fourth of July. However, another surge of monsoon moisture will likely move in on that Friday, bringing back scattered afternoon storm chances.
The Garcia Subaru Pet Pics segment highlights New Mexico Living viewers’ pets. Friday’s pet of the day is Twiggs. She is an 8-month-old foster fail who was adopted from Watermelon Mountain Ranch in January by Jessica Morning. Twiggs was named for her love of sticks. She spends her days getting into things she shouldn’t, annoying her three rescue siblings, and barking at things that are not there.
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Drier air will move in but it will still be relatively muggy and warm. See the latest conditions at KOB.com/Weather.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Drier air will move in Friday but it will still be hot and relatively muggy with some spotty storms and partly cloudy conditions.
Temperatures will reach the triple digits in southern New Mexico, except for Ruidoso and Silver City. The Four Corners will see 80s and 90s. Red River will get to around 75° in the northern mountains.
A greater chance of storms is coming this weekend.
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Meteorologist Kira Miner shares all the details in her full forecast in the video above.