State Rep. John Block, R-Alamogordo, right, joins a pro-Second Amendment rally Saturday outside the Capitol. Sponsored by the New Mexico Shooting Sports Association and the New Mexico Firearms Industry Association, demonstrators, a number of them armed, voiced their opposition to Senate Bill 17, a gun control bill moving through the Legislature. Nathan Burton/The New Mexican
Bethany Padilla, center, a member of UNM’s Students Demand Action chapter, wipes tears from her eyes as she listens to speakers share their experiences of gun violence during a rally in support of Senate Bill 17 on Saturday in the Capitol Rotunda. Nathan Burton/The New Mexican
By NATHAN BROWN
The Santa Fe New Mexican
Two groups converged on the Roundhouse Saturday morning to express very different views on a gun bill before the Senate.
“Guns sold legally in this state are ending up in backpacks and in school parking lots, turning places of learning into places of fear,” Bo Wilson, a student at the University of New Mexico, said at an event in the rotunda organized by Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action.
Outside, the mood was quite different at a rally organized by the New Mexico Shooting Sports Association. One demonstrator held up a sign reading “The experts agree: gun control works,” with a picture placing Rep. Andrea Romero, one of the sponsors of Senate Bill 17, and other Democrats alongside former North Korean president Kim Il-Sung and Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong.
“ I know this sounds like a trope but guns don’t kill,” said a man who identified himself only as Bob, toting a camouflage-print AR-15, the sale of which would be banned if SB 17 becomes law. He has a hunting rifle, too, that he said would be banned under the bill.
“I mean, start holding the people that are actually committing the crimes responsible,” he said.
The state Senate voted 21-17 Saturday evening to pass SB 17, with two Democrats joining all the Republicans present in opposition. The bill would put a myriad of new regulations on gun sellers, including a minimum age and background checks for workers, inventory and sales tracking and security requirements.
It also contains provisions similar to the assault weapons bans in some states, prohibiting the sale of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds and of “gas-operated semiautomatic” firearms, which includes rifles such as AK-47s and AR-15s. People who own such weapons before the bill takes effect on July 1 would be allowed to keep them.
New Mexico Democrats have pushed a number of gun control measures in recent sessions — a bill very similar to SB 17 was introduced in 2025 — although many previous efforts have stalled in the face of united opposition from Republicans plus a handful of Democrats. A bill putting a seven-day waiting period on gun sales passed in 2024, although it is currently tied up in court.
SB 17 now heads to the House with two weeks left in this year’s legislative session. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham indicated Saturday she will sign the bill if it reaches her desk.
“This is common-sense legislation that will save lives and make our state a better place to raise a family,” she said in a statement.
‘Curtailing the overambitious’
Co-sponsor Sen. Debbie O’Malley, D-Albuquerque, said New Mexico lacks “basic safeguards by gun dealers” to prevent firearms from getting into the wrong hands.
“Senate Bill 17 is a straightforward bill that asks responsible business owners to do their part,” said co-sponsor Sen. Heather Berghmans, D-Albuquerque.
O’Malley brought up Solomon Peña, an Albuquerque Republican who, after losing a 2022 House race, shot up the homes of four Democratic elected officials, including O’Malley. He was sentenced in December to 80 years in federal prison.
“New Mexico’s gun violence crisis stems from a retail-to-criminal pipeline rather than random crime,” O’Malley said.
Republicans debated against the bill for more than four hours. Senate Minority Leader Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, said it infringes on a constitutional right he sees as a safeguard against tyranny.
“When the British were marching to Lexington and Concord in 1775, that was a gun control operation,” Sharer said.
Even “a growing number of progressives,” he said, are buying guns due to their worries about “King Trump.”
“The Second Amendment is about curtailing the overambitious among us,” Sharer said.
Sen. Jim Townsend, R-Artesia, said lawmakers have received “thousands of emails” opposing SB 17. He predicted electoral consequences for its supporters.
“I believe that the members who represent their constituents will vote against it, and those that vote for it will be remembered in November,” he said.
‘Lives are on the line’
With a pistol holstered on her hip, Rep. Stefani Lord, R-Sandia Park, told the crowd outside the Capitol they “should be pissed off as hell, because I told you they were coming for your guns and they are.”
She encouraged those in the crowd who weren’t carrying firearms to enter the Capitol — members of the public can’t bring guns into the building — to urge lawmakers to vote against the bill. She singled out Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee who opposed similar gun restrictions last year but voted for SB 17 in committee this year.
“You know what Cervantes really hates?” Lord said. “Don’t tell anybody. He hates when people attack him on social media. So please don’t do that. Don’t do that. Because he gets very, very upset about that stuff.”
Cervantes voted against the bill on the Senate floor Saturday; he and Sen. Angel Charley, D-Acoma, were the only two Democrats to do so.
Wilson said the bill’s supporters would not be dissuaded by the rally outside.
“We’re not intimidated,” Wilson said. “We’re here [because] lives are on the line and we care.”
Romero, D-Santa Fe, said SB 17 would hold gun dealers accountable and that the guns it would ban selling have no place on the streets.
“They were designed for murder and war,” she said.
Reporter André Salkin contributed to this story.