Sen. Heinrich takes a second swing at gun regulations

There may not be a path forward for Sen. Martin Heinrich’s gun regulation bill with a Republican-dominated Congress, but advocates are pushing for the same regulations to be implemented at the state level.

Heinrich, D-N.M., was promoting his Go SAFE Act in front of an anti-gun-violence mural created by Robert F. Kennedy Charter School students Wednesday, alongside advocacy groups like New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action.

Heinrich introduced the bill, which is meant to focus on firearms’ lethality instead of their appearance, for the second time last week. New Mexico state legislators introduced similar legislation with an identical name — Gas-Operated Semiauto Firearms Exclusion Act — in 2024 and 2025. It also failed to pass. One of the bill sponsors, Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, said she plans to file it again in the next session.

There has only been one year in his 13 years in the Senate when the door was open to pass “common sense gun safety legislation,” Heinrich said — after the Uvalde school shooting in May 2022. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act passed that June. It made trafficking guns out of the U.S. a federal crime, and addressed straw purchases. It also created tougher background checks for gun buyers under 21.

“This legislation is an effort to be ready when the door opens to some additional common sense action, to have something that is not halfway thought through, but really where we’ve been able to get the details lined up and be able to do this in a way that will be defensible in the courts and effective,” Heinrich said.

The Go SAFE Act tries to tackle the issue of mass shootings by making it harder for people to get guns with high-capacity magazines, in theory forcing mass shooters to reload more frequently. It would prevent some modifications of firearms, mandate future gas-operated designs be approved by the government before being manufactured, and try to prevent unlawful firearm self-assembly. It would regulate large capacity ammunition feeding devices and make conversion devices like bump stocks illegal.

“These bills do nothing to stop violent crime. Instead, they target law-abiding citizens who responsibly own and use firearms for protection, hunting, and sport. Senator Heinrich’s legislation is out of touch with New Mexico values,” Anthony Segura, executive director for the New Mexico Shooting Sports Association, said in a statement.

Monisha Henley, senior vice president for Government Affairs at Everytown, called for a special state legislative session to take up the bill once again.

“The deadly mass shooting in Las Cruces is a painful reminder that here in New Mexico, communities continue to deal with the toll of gun violence,” Henley said.

In 2022, New Mexico ranked third highest in the nation for firearm mortality, with 27.3 deaths per 100,000 people. There were 571 firearm deaths that year, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. More than half of the 48,000 firearm-related deaths in the country that year were suicides, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Preventing gun violence is her duty, said Christina Gill with Moms Demand Action, who spoke in support of the bill Wednesday. Gill’s son, 39-year-old Joseph Aiello, was murdered in a 2021 shooting in Santa Fe.

“I think you always live with a deep sorrow,” Gill said. “Even though I have to say, I have a full life, good family, good friends, but yes, the stone in your heart is always there.”