NM can do something to prevent mass shootings

“We should do one thing!” That’s a standard plea heard in response to the horrific lack of life in Tulsa, Uvalde and Buffalo.

New Mexico can “do one thing.” We will take steps to reduce the danger of mass shootings by making one of the vital lethal weapons much less accessible and by enhancing menace evaluation.

As a former prosecutor and as a psychologist, we all know violent crime is devastating for victims and their family members. To scale back violent crime, Matthews sponsored laws within the 2022 session to strengthen pretrial launch guidelines for these charged with violent felonies. Baron has advocated since Columbine in 1999 for smart and constitutional gun security laws.

Among the many most dangerous weapons obtainable for buy by civilians within the U.S. are assault rifles just like the AR-15, which is America’s hottest semi-automatic weapon. The only objective of an assault weapon is to kill a number of individuals quickly. It’s a army weapon! They need to be banned from civilian use, together with the bullets they hearth. Whereas the federal assault-weapon ban was in place, 1994-2004, gun deaths fell 37%; they rose 183% after the ban expired.

AR-15 bullets journey thrice the speed of 1 fired by a 9 mm handgun, and the magazines can feed dozens of rounds into the weapon within the area of minutes. The pace at which it may well hearth reportedly will be three rounds per second, or as quick as somebody can repeatedly pull the set off. An often-purchased journal dimension holds 30 rounds, however a higher-capacity journal can maintain greater than 60 rounds.

The bullets are ferocious. They’ll penetrate a number of partitions and customary police physique armor. The bullets are often .223 Remington cartridges that may trigger an entrance wound just below a quarter-inch in diameter. We noticed the tragic proof of this energy when identification of most of the younger Uvalde victims required DNA samples from their dad and mom.

There are an estimated 20 million assault fashion rifles in the USA, about one in each 20 privately held weapons.

At present beneath federal legislation, you solely should be 18 to buy a rifle, together with assault rifles, that are a lot larger capability weapons. Assault rifles are significantly harmful within the arms of people youthful than 21 as a result of their mind and impulse management should not totally developed. In reality, in six of the 9 most dangerous mass shootings within the U.S. since 2018, the shooters had been 21 or youthful.

We’re advocating for a complete ban on the sale of assault rifles in New Mexico for the explanations set forth above, however at a minimal we should always prohibit these youthful than 21 from with the ability to buy or possess these weapons.

Lots of the latest people behind latest mass shootings espoused hatred and made threats of violence on-line earlier than finishing up these horrific acts. New Mexico also needs to think about enhancing its menace evaluation capability by making a Social Media Violent Threats Monitoring capability to establish and examine credible threats of bodily violence.

The time to “do one thing” in New Mexico is now. Let’s make it occur.