New Mexico’s powerful anti-gun lobby is hard at work attempting to pile yet more restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms.
The latest legal infraction, Senate Bill 17, is just one volley in what promises to be a protracted legal fight. Besides the typical attack on popular sporting rifles as “assault weapons” that must be banned, the legislation goes further.
SB 17 targets gun shop owners in a way that will force many to close their doors forever. Profit margins in this healthy and competitive industry are not high, and piling on exorbitant expenses may very well be the end of these hard-working entrepreneurs’ businesses.
Small gun shops must be converted into fortresses to comply with the bill’s harsh language
The insidious bill’s language establishes a minefield of requirements that law-abiding gun shop owners would be forced to navigate.
“…Site hardening, including locks on doors and windows and other features…which may include bars or grates, security screens and commercial-grade metal doors; installation and use of video surveillance systems, including video recording devices at each point of sale and each entrance and exit to the premises, which shall be recorded from both the indoor and outdoor vantage point…”
Security records must be kept for two years, and proprietors must also comply with any other “reasonable requirements” concocted by New Mexico authorities.
Bill that should have died a quick committee death instead advanced last week.
State Sen. Jay Block (R) told his colleagues that SB 17 is “the worst mockery of the Second Amendment in the state’s history.” The lawmaker accused gun rights opponents of ignoring their duty to “hold violent and repeat offenders accountable” to punish “law-abiding New Mexicans and small business owners.”
After advancing on a strict party-line vote, the measure moves on to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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