Removing automatic weapons from Americans will prevent gun violence from taking over schoos and city streets

Echo opinion published in the Albuquerque Journal, the American public wakes up every day to the news of another community torn apart by gun violence (Orlando Florida and Perry High School in Iowa) .  By Michelle Lujan Grisham.

America’s gun violence crisis is so rampant that we are virtually numb to the deadly reality that more than 120 Americans are shot and killed every day in our country. Far too often, these tragedies reach our doorsteps right here in New Mexico. Families from Farmington to Las Cruces feel the anxiety and fear of being gunned down at shopping malls and movie theaters, of dropping their children off at school.

We saw it❗ — a teenager legally purchased an AR-15 in late 2022, and bought an additional three magazines just days before he went on a shooting spree. Horribly, the murderer fired over 150 rounds, killed three and injured six, including two police officers. Three women were brutally slaughtered by an automatic weapon designed for warfare and whose only purpose is to kill multiple people in a short amount of time.

Between 2015, and 2022, in the U.S., eight of the 10 deadliest mass shooting incidents involved the use of a firearm equipped with a high-capacity magazine, an assault weapon or both. Shootings where assault weapons were used resulted in more than twice as many people killed and more than 22 times as many people wounded per incident on average. There’s no training or survival class against an assault weapon. 

In addition to brutalizing our communities, these military-grade weapons also overwhelm and endanger law enforcement. In fact, New Mexico's governor took an oath to protect the state's citizens. "I take this responsibility seriously," she said, "I refuse to stand by while weak laws allow our street and neighborhoods to be terrorized by weapons or war again, and again and again.  It's time for New Mexico to break the cycle & ban assault weapons, once and for all!"

Banning assault weapons isn’t a novel concept. President Clinton took decisive action in 1994 and the data are clear: banning assault weapons saves lives. A 2019 study revealed a staggering 70% reduction in mass shooting fatalities between 1994 and 2004, when the federal ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines was enforced. When the federal ban expired, state governments had to take up the charge of protecting their own people, and nearly one-third of the population now lives in states that prohibit assault weapons. Many of these states, such as California, have the lowest gun violence rates in the country.

Between 1993 and 2017, California saw a remarkable 55% decrease in its firearm mortality rate, a reduction nearly four times greater than the rest of the nation in the same period of time. 

The numbers don’t lie; common-sense gun safety solutions save lives and it’s time for New Mexico to follow suit.

My proposed assault weapons ban takes an innovative approach. We can tackle this crisis by prohibiting the sale, transfer, and receipt of gas-operated semi-automatic firearms, such as AR-15 rifles, and large-capacity magazines that hold 10 or more rounds of ammunition. Our proposed assault weapons ban will keep these weapons of war off our streets while continuing to allow most handguns and common hunting firearms to be sold. My legislation would ban extraordinarily dangerous firearms based on their internal construction, so gunmakers will not be able to circumnavigate the ban in the future – as they have done in other states – by changing their firearms’ external features. This means that New Mexicans will be protected for generations to come, at the same time responsible gun ownership for self-defense, hunting and other activities meaningful to New Mexicans is preserved.

This upcoming legislative session, I am laser-focused on putting an end to our gun violence crisis. New Mexicans are ready for meaningful action – that’s how we honor victims and save lives. There are political forces who will oppose taking these weapons of mass destruction off the streets. 

In recent years, my administration has shown them that we are putting courage over politics by expanding background checks for gun purchases and preventing children from gaining access to their parents’ weapons. Now it’s time to get these weapons of war off our streets once and for all.

As a daughter, mother and grandmother, my family’s experiences motivate me to be in this fight. In 2019, my daughter was in a mall that was on active shooter lockdown, while we debated gun violence legislation here in New Mexico; my granddaughter’s school was locked down because a student brought a fake gun to school in their backpack that was mistaken for a real firearm. Later, two adults had an altercation outside of that school during afternoon pick-up, resulting in one of them brandishing a firearm while students were being released for the day and all access points to the campus were open. Parents don’t know if the school dropoff is the last time they will ever see their kids. For them, and for children across New Mexico, we cannot shy away from this gun violence crisis. Not anymore. #Enough!

We need leaders at every level, regardless of our politics, to come together and present common-sense solutions to this ceaseless pattern of mass shootings. It’s time to put the safety of our families over partisan politics and meet this moment by doing what we know saves lives. Together, we can put an end to the public health crisis of mass shootings, protect our citizens and get weapons of war off our streets.