Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, speaks on the Senate floor Wednesday. Luis Sánchez Saturno/The New Mexican

By ROBERT NOTT
The Santa Fe New Mexican

The State of the State address took place Tuesday.

A state of doubt took hold Wednesday. 

When Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced last week a string of 21 public safety measures, many involving guns, she said she had consulted with the Legislature’s Democratic caucus and felt “much better” about getting support for most — if not all — of the initiatives.

“I feel very confident, but we’ll have to wait and see,” Lujan Grisham said of garnering the needed Democratic support.

It could be a long wait, if some legislators’ initial reactions to some of the governor’s proposals come to fruition.

Some lawmakers are hinting some of the governor’s public safety initiatives — measures that have failed before in the House of Representatives and the Senate — may have little chance of passage this time around. 

“Senate Democrats will have trouble with some of the bills, and some we won’t,” Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart said in an interview at the Capitol Tuesday.

Stewart, D-Albuquerque, added Senate Democrats want to work with the governor on public safety initiatives, but acknowledged, “We certainly won’t support all of them. I can tell you that by the sheer numbers.”

The governor’s initiatives are many, including a ban on assault weapons; raising the legal age to buy a firearm from 18 to 21; and imposing a 14-day waiting period for firearm purchases while awaiting the results of a background check.

Twenty-four hours into the session, lawmakers in both parties expressed uncertainty on whether some of the measures would pass. And her executive order that prohibits guns in playgrounds and parks — currently under review by the Supreme Court — prompted House Reps. John Block, R-Alamogordo, and Stefani Lord, R-Sandia Park, to file a resolution of articles of impeachment against the governor this week.

Lujan Grisham is undeterred: Spokeswoman Maddy Hayden said Wednesday the governor remained confident her proposals would eventually prevail.

“This year is seeing a convergence of not only a public that continues to demand action from the Legislation on public safety, but also a sense of energy felt after the meaningful results of the concerted efforts of the last few months in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County,” Hayden wrote in an email. “There’s more momentum around public safety than ever, and we are confident we have the votes to get these proposals across the finish line.”

The governor called for legislative support for a ban on assault weapons during her State of the State speech Tuesday. Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, said Wednesday she had filed such a bill, modeled after the federal Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearms Exclusion Act that U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Angus King of Maine introduced in Congress late last year. 

The legislation would regulate such guns to have permanently fixed magazines, limited to 10 rounds for rifles. Romero said with the increase in mass shootings and killings involving such weapons, she believes more people, including Democrats who have been hesitant to support such initiatives in the past, may be behind the idea this year. 

“I do think the conversation has shifted,” Romero said. “It’s not just about where we stand on these issues but the reality of what’s happening in our backyard.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, said he had not yet seen Romero’s bill, but noted: “We’ve seen many versions of the assault weapons ban before. Our conclusion has been consistently the prior versions of that are not constitutional.”

Other leading Senate Democrats echoed the point. Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said “violating the Constitution across the board is not something I’m interested in at all.”

Rep. Harry Garcia, D-Grants, said he will not support “any gun legislation” to prohibit their use.

Cervantes and other members of the influential Senate Judiciary Committee repeatedly have questioned the constitutionality of legislation that bans guns in a state with open-carry laws in place. 

He and others have noted efforts to pass federal legislation to ban assault weapons have stalled in Congress.

About a dozen mostly Democratic-leaning states have assault weapons bans, magazine capacity limits, or both. Illinois recently imposed such a law, which went into effect this month.

Senate Republicans have said they do support some of the governor’s proposals, including a pretrial detention bill. While they often support Democratic “tough on crime” legislation, they are less likely to side with Lujan Grisham when it comes to gun-safety bills they see as gun-limitation, some GOP lawmakers said. 

“We’re behind any measure that is common sense, that is going to punish criminals and keep them in jail,” said Sen. Greg Baca, R-Belen, the Senate minority leader. “We will oppose any restrictions we are trying to place on common law-abiding citizens, such as unconstitutional bans that they are suggesting on firearms.”

Garcia, as well as others on both sides of the aisle, said he is behind the governor’s initiative to keep suspected violent offenders awaiting trial behind bars until their trial begins. 

“That’s the main thing we need to address, because by letting these people commit the same crimes over and over and over … it’s not working,” he said. “The system is completely broken.”

Because the majority of the bills championed by the governor had not yet been posted or gone through a committee hearing as of Wednesday, many lawmakers said they wanted to view their full text before weighing in.

Rep. Patty Lundstrom, D-Gallup, said she is open to considering a 14-day waiting period before anyone can buy a gun and wants to support a law prohibiting panhandling, at least on public roads and medians. She said she also supports more funding to recruit and retain state police officers, another initiative the governor wants this year. 

But Lundstrom was less supportive of raising the age to purchase firearms. Noting New Mexicans can enlist in the military at age 17 and vote at 18, she asked: “You can serve your country at 17 years old, be expected to use a firearm, but yet you can’t buy one when you come home? I don’t know what that would look like.”

She added crime legislation has to look at addressing the many levels of care and support needed to deal with behavioral and mental health issues surrounding gun violence and crime. 

While Lundstrom cautioned against any effort to fashion an omnibus crime package — she said she did not think it would garner enough support to pass — Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas, said it’s not inconceivable the 21 measures will find themselves condensed and combined into fewer bills. 

“We all know you can have 21 different measures but we all also know you end up with some consolidated pieces of legislation that will address the issues,” he said.

“I know the committees that are going to deal directly with it, from Judiciary to Finance, will look at it very closely,” he said.