Gun regulations could be a focus of 2024 session following year of high-profile violence and gun control debates.

Keith Sanchez strummed an electric guitar made out of pistols and gun cartridges.

“It sounds good as a country guitar,” he said as he played a twangy riff.

The music echoed through the forge at Robert F. Kennedy Charter School in the South Valley, where Sanchez was surrounded by students who had used their metalworking skills to forge and weld the guitar, along with a xylophone with tone bars made out of gun barrels.

Two years ago, the school partnered with the New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence to transform guns from the coalition’s buyback program into shovels and vases.

Since the program started, the coalition has bought back more than 2,000 guns, offering gift cards for groceries and Amazon. Coalition co-president Miranda Viscoli said every year, more people are interested in the program.

And it’s not just the buyback program. Viscoli said elected officials are increasingly responding to gun violence in the state, especially after a spike in 2021. This legislative session, the governor, and some state and city legislators, are eyeing measures to reduce gun-related injuries and deaths.

“I’m hoping that our elected officials are finally realizing that we are in a crisis point,” Viscoli said. “We’ve been in a crisis point for decades, and the crisis is only getting worse.”

Back in the forge, Sanchez said similar guitars are often decorative, but the guitar made by the students is fully functional and well-balanced through the neck and tuning pegs.

“It takes master guitar crafters years to do,” Sanchez said. “So I’m pretty blown away.”

In 2014, New Mexico was ranked eighth out of the states with the most gun deaths, with 16 people per 100,000 in the state dying from gun violence per year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2021, that number shot up to 27.8 per 100,000 people, making New Mexico the state with the second-highest rate of gun deaths per capita.

Zachary Fort, legislative affairs officer for the New Mexico Shooting Sports Association, the official state association for the National Rifle Association, said he’s aware of more gun-control legislation being proposed for the upcoming budget session. The association is following four or five major pieces of legislation.

The reason?

“I think we’re all fed up with crime,” Fort said.

Fort added that’s one of the reasons many members carry guns — because they’ve been victims of crime in New Mexico or have experienced shortfalls with police response.

During the last legislative session, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed two gun-related bills: one, which criminalized “straw purchases” of guns — the purchase of weapons for another person who can’t own guns or is planning to use it in a crime — and another that holds parents responsible if children inappropriately use guns that weren’t properly stored.

Lujan Grisham is pursuing more gun-control measures this year. According to a spokesperson from her office, she is planning to push for a 14-day waiting period on gun sales, an assault weapons ban and a higher age restriction for firearm purchases.

Earlier this year, Lujan Grisham issued a public health order prohibiting the carrying of guns in Bernalillo County. It faced immediate legal challenges and was later truncated to apply only to parks and playgrounds. Her announcement came after the shooting deaths of two children in the county.

On the city of Albuquerque level, this year’s legislative priorities include several measures relating to gun violence, including creating a New Mexico Office of Gun Violence Prevention, restricting the carrying of weapons in public spaces and closing red flag loopholes.

The city’s priorities also include several requests for longer sentences for certain crimes committed with guns and stronger charges for guns being randomly fired in public spaces.

Also included in the list of priorities is a reference to a resolution passed in early October that asks the governor not to infringe on Second Amendment rights. Municipalities and counties are prohibited, per the state constitution, from regulating the right to bear arms — any regulations need to be adopted on the state level.

State Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, who sits on the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, said writing successful legislation around guns is an “artful dance” given the challenges working within the U.S. Constitution.

“I want to be as bold as possible, while being as constitutional as possible,” Ivey-Soto said.

On top of that, Ivey-Soto said, given the diversity of the state, safety can look different to different people. For some people, especially in urban areas, he said, the presence of a gun can make them feel unsafe. In rural areas, where police response times are generally slower, he continued, guns can make people feel more secure.

“I have a 10-year-old daughter,” Ivey-Soto said. “In a few years, she’s going to be wanting to meet friends at the mall and hang out. And I need to feel safe knowing that I can drop her off and she’s going to be OK.”

Editor's note: A previous version of the story misstated the name for New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence.