14-day waiting period for firearm purchases passes hurdle

SANTA FE — A bill that would require a 14-day waiting period to buy firearms — a measure that bill sponsor Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, said closes a loophole allowing guns to be transferred before background checks are returned — passed the Legislature’s House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee on a 4-2 vote Thursday.

Several other states have adopted waiting periods for firearms purchases, but the bill under discussion would make New Mexico’s waiting period one of the longest in the country. California and Colorado mandate 10- and three-day waiting periods, respectively. Like the proposal in New Mexico, Hawaii requires a 14-day waiting period.

“The seller can actually hand over that firearm without the background check having been accomplished,” Romero said. “This closes that critical loophole.”

In addition to ensuring background checks are returned before purchase, the bill will reduce crimes of passion and suicide by providing a “cool-down” period for purchases, its proponents argue.

At the Thursday committee meeting, several cited what Allen Sánchez, executive director of the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops, called an “epidemic of suicide.”

“Usually, people only want to die for a little while,” Sánchez said. “But this is a permanent decision. And you can rush to that gun, an instant impulse.”

According to a 2023 New Mexico Department of Health news release, the state had the fourth-highest rate of suicide nationally in 2021, and in 2022, hospitals around the state reported more than 2,000 emergency room visits from suicide attempts.

But opponents said it punishes law-abiding gun owners with a blanket waiting period, including people who have already passed background checks to gain a concealed-carry license, off-duty law enforcement officers and people who immediately pass their background checks.

“Ninety percent of background checks result in immediate ‘proceed with sale’ response from the FBI,” said Tara Micha, a National Rifle Association representative. “It makes no sense to impose a waiting period on these 90% of gun buyers.”

Several public commenters also said it could limit people’s abilities to defend themselves.

The 14-day period — defined as 14 “business” days — was also questioned by Rep. John Block, R-Alamogordo, as an extension, making the waiting period longer than Hawaii’s, saying it would unfairly affect rural New Mexicans who have to drive long distances to purchase weapons.

Committee members Reps. Liz Thomson, D-Albuquerque, Angelica Rubio, D-Las Cruces, and Joanne Ferrary, D-Las Cruces, voted yes with Romero, while Block and Stefani Lord, R-Sandia Park, voted against. Block and Lord have introduced legislation to remove background checks for firearm purchases.

The proposed legislation is one of a series of bills targeting gun violence in the state. In the same House committee, two other gun control measures — a ban on gas-powered semi-automatic firearms throughout the state and a minimum age to purchase an automatic firearm, semi-automatic firearm, or large-capacity ammunition feeding device — were also scheduled for discussion and vote.

Both were passed, also on a party line vote, Thursday evening. The meeting lasted nearly six hours.

On Wednesday, a bill that prohibits firearms within 100 feet of a polling place passed the Senate Rules Committee 7-4.