Senator willing to compromise on gun show background checks

SANTA FE – An Albuquerque senator said Wednesday that concerns over firearm-owners’ privacy rights – and whether the government would vow to honor them – prompted him to hold up a high-profile bill on background checks at gun shows.

However, Democratic Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto told the Journal he planned to meet with the bill’s supporters and was optimistic that changes could be made to the measure that would allow him to support it.

“If I feel the balancing act is an appropriate balancing act between protection by the government and protection from the government, then I will support the bill,” Ivey-Soto said.

Late Wednesday, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Miguel P. Garcia, D-Albuquerque, told supporters in an email that he and Ivey-Soto had worked out an agreement on changes to the bill that will allow it to be moved on today.

House Bill 77, the proposed legislation to close a gun show loophole that allows private vendors to sell weapons without doing background checks, passed the House 43-26 last month.

The bill’s backers say it would keep at least some guns out of the hands of those who are prohibited by law from having them – such as felons and individuals found to be mentally ill. Gov. Susana Martinez has said she would sign the legislation in its current form.

But the bill’s momentum came to an abrupt halt in the Senate Public Affairs Committee earlier this week, when Ivey-Soto and Republican lawmakers voted against it. The 4-4 committee vote effectively stalled the legislation.

Ivey-Soto, a first-term lawmaker, was successful in tacking several amendments onto the bill, such as a limit on the fees that could be charged for gun show background checks. However, other changes he proposed were not adopted, including the provision that would bar the state from creating a registry of gun purchasers.

Lists of gun owners can be accessed in some states, and a suburban New York newspaper came under fire last year for publishing the names and addresses of people with gun permits.

However, Department of Public Safety Secretary Gorden Eden, pointed out that the gun show loophole bill was amended in the House so that the gun show background checks would be conducted by not by the state but by federal firearm licensees, who already do other checks for other gun purchases.

“There would be not record or log kept by DPS,” Eden said. “We don’t keep one now.”

If approved today in the Senate Public Affairs Committee, House Bill 77 will advance to another Senate panel with 10 days left in the 60-day legislative session.
— This article appeared on page A6 of the Albuquerque Journal