Senate version of 14-day waiting period advances

SANTA FE — A proposed 14-day waiting period for firearm purchases cleared another hurdle Friday. A day after the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee advanced House Bill 129, the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee passed its own version.

Senate Bill 69 passed through the committee 5-3, with Senate Republicans Gregg Schmedes, R-Tijeras, Greg Nibert, R-Roswell. and Steven McCutcheon, R-Carlsbad, voting no.

The Senate version carves out an exception to the 14-day waiting period for people who already have their concealed-carry license, which some commenters speaking in opposition still applauded.

“You might find a good happy medium for everybody to swallow,” said Dereck Scott of the Free Party of New Mexico. “But I appreciate that you at least tried to make some considerations in this.”

Scott said his opposition came from the length of the waiting period.

Bill sponsor Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, and a gun owner, said the 14-day period is based on other states that have adopted waiting periods that have not been challenged in court. Hawaii also has enacted a 14-day waiting period.

Cervantes said the measure would close a federal loophole that, regardless if a background check has been returned, allows someone to receive a gun after three days by “default.”

“We think that there’s a background check being run,” Cervantes said. “But the default is that if they’re behind, or they’re slow … the presumption is, you get a gun.”

But Schmedes questioned whether the measure is constitutional per a 2022 Supreme Court opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas asking that firearm regulations follow the “historical tradition” of restrictions in the United States.

“Naturally, my question … is, is a 14-day waiting period consistent with our historical tradition of firearm regulation?” Schmedes asked.

Cervantes said he anticipated the court would reverse that decision.

As on Thursday, proponents of the bill highlighted how it could save lives by providing a “cool-off” period for people experiencing suicide ideation.

Sen. Martin Hickey, D-Albuquerque, said people struggling with addiction or mental illness sometimes experience “flares” of instability or high emotion.

“I am very afraid that without a law like this we are going to continue to see the deaths of people who really don’t mean it,” Hickey said.

A bill that would make members of the firearms industry subject to civil penalties in certain cases received a do-pass recommendation Friday in the House Judicial Committee by a 7-4 vote.

House Bill 114, called the Firearms Industry Accountability Act, would allow the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office and district attorneys to bring civil actions against people involved in the sale, manufacturing and marketing of firearms.

The bill also would allow private individuals to file civil lawsuits “to recover actual or punitive damages against a firearm industry member” who fails “to exercise reasonable controls” over the sale and manufacture of firearms.

Bill sponsor Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, told committee members Friday that one intent of the bill is to provide civil remedies for people harmed by straw-buyers — purchases by a person on behalf of someone prohibited from legally owning a firearm.

The practice of straw-purchases already is illegal under criminal law in New Mexico, she said.

Opponents, including several gun store owners and employees, said the bill threatens to put them out of business, and puts sales workers at legal risk for simply doing their jobs.