Sunday, May 27, 2018

On Guns, Santa Fe Gun Owners Need to Be Heard


Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber put a column into the Sunday New Mexican in light of the Santa Fe TX school shooting lamenting the lack of state gun control efforts. Mr Mayor stated that if the city can't regulate guns due to the NM Constitution's preemption clause, it will try to regulate magazines, ammo, and potentially take other actions if the city's lawyers think they can get away with regulating firearm use short of regulating guns. I think any attempt to circumvent the state constitution will further polarize the gun violence debate, and should be avoided.

Note this tactic was explored by the city once before, in 2013, and fortunately died a quick death as it most likely violates the state constitution's preemption clause. We are once again caught between the liberal version of regulating guns in general, especially trying to eliminate those guns that liberals find offensive, and trying to keep guns out of the wrong hands, whichever hands happen to be turning rogue.

I find it interesting that Mayor Webber put the usual Progressive language about ridding the community of assault weapons and big magazines into the context of the Santa Fe, TX shooting. That shooting was done with a garden variety shotgun and revolver, i.e., that shooting, unlike some others, had nothing to do with high capacity magazines or "black rifles". Black rifles are not necessarily the problem. Any gun in the wrong hands is the problem. But that's somewhat beside the point of the city ignoring the state constitution.

Article II, § 6 of the Constitution of New Mexico provides:
No law shall abridge the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms for security and defense, for lawful hunting and recreational use and for other lawful purposes, but nothing herein shall be held to permit the carrying of concealed weapons. No municipality or county shall regulate, in any way, an incident of the right to keep and bear arms.
 Italics mine. Now one can suggest that ammo, or a magazine, is not a gun, but a gun without ammo or a magazine is not much more than a blued steel paperweight. Ammo, magazines, etc, are "incident" of the right to keep and bear arms since they are part of the overall package. But of course I am no lawyer.

 Having recently moved to the City Different, I would resent becoming a criminal merely by having signed a change of address form. I would likewise hate to have to sign on to an injunction to prevent an ordinance from taking effect and see my own tax dollars drained down a black hole fighting a constitutionally problematic ordinance in court rather than seeing our tax dollars directed at preventing a shooting. Hopefully, the city attorneys will not go down this rabbit hole. If the gun violence prevention folks want to get rid of preemption, it is by amending the state constitution, which from my read, is absurdly easy. One might think of that if the other side of the political fence tries the same game some day on some other hot button issue such as abortion.

The Mayor blamed the NRA for that preemption clause. While the NRA may have "swept into the state" in 1986 in support of said clause, it was added to the constitution not by the NRA, which is not a registered voter, but by the voters of New Mexico. The whole state of New Mexico is not a Progressive paradise: it is a mix of urban, rural, conservative, moderate, and liberal people. Animal rights activists and pig hunters. Vegans and venison connoisseurs. Gun haters and black rifle tinkerers. Plus, its not just the NRA that sweeps in to mess with our gun laws.  When Everytown for Gun Safety "swept into the state" in 2016 carrying a pre-written background check bill and a large wad of cash to pass around to key legislators and liberal black money organizations, their bill failed because it was ridiculously overbroad and was rejected by the Legislature. I worked on it, trying to help Stephanie Garcia-Richards cobble together a bill that had more support, but since I was not a lobbyist with a checkbook, my opinion did not much matter, although a moderated bill emerged a little too late to move forward. In fact, the NRA was out-spent and outnumbered by Mr. Bloomberg's lobbyists on that one. The one NRA lobbyist who was in the state thought my efforts were, to put it charitably, lost in the maelstrom.

Sometimes, although not necessarily in a deep red or deep blue location, consensus matters. So rather than treating gun owners like the enemy and playing fast and loose with the constitution, perhaps the City Different should find points of agreement with the firearms community. I don't think anyone here, and that includes gun owners, wants to see our schools shot up . Laws directed at actual problems, such as CAP laws to keep Junior out of the family arsenal unless supervised, tax breaks on gun safes, background checks for private sales to anyone you don't know well, well written ERPO laws, violence intervention, holding parents accountable for their kids (such as knowing if your kids are planning a mass shooting or piling up arms and explosives), engaged parenting so that kids don't go down the rabbit hole of toxic social media while having access to firearms, free gun safety training, and other efforts that don't violate the Constitution, many of which require state bills, aren't even being discussed by the City.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, if this proceeds as you have written, some of us will most likely not get out of the way. For better or worse, gun ownership (as in that "guns and bibles" quote) is part of the American fabric. I still hope there is a way to deal with gun misuse without resort to more political gasoline and matches from either side.  I would prefer both sides find common ground, which seems to be the opposite of what the nation is experiencing. Maybe we can be the "city different" with regards to gun violence prevention and find some of that elusive common ground. Maybe.

New York Magazine: No "epidemic" of school shootings.
Northeastern Univ.: School shootings, 1990's-present.