By MARGARET O’HARA
The Santa Fe New Mexican

After nearly four decades in law enforcement, Angel Fire police Chief Jerry Hogrefe has come to a conclusion. 

“I think we can all agree certain people should not have firearms or have access to firearms,” he said before the state House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee. “That’s why I’m here to support this initiative.”

On Tuesday, that committee voted to advance House Bill 11, a measure making changes to the so-called “red flag” gun law state lawmakers passed several years ago. 

New Mexico’s Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Order Act allows for someone’s firearms to be taken away if a judge decides the gun owner poses a risk to themselves or others. 

House Bill 11, which moved out of the committee in a 4-2 party-line vote and would still have to pass the full House and then the Senate to become law, comes as New Mexico lawmakers consider a slurry of public safety-related bills this session, in part at the urging of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

Nearly 100 petitions for extreme risk firearm protection orders were filed in 2024, past reporting by The New Mexican shows. That’s up from 47 in 2023, 16 in 2022 and four petitions filed in 2020, when the original red flag law was passed. 

The five-page bill, which is backed by the governor and based on issues identified by law enforcement, makes a pair of relatively small changes. 

First, the bill would require individuals who receive an extreme risk firearm protection order relinquish their firearms immediately, as opposed to the 48-hour relinquishment period allowed under the original version. 

Proponents argued this was a much-needed change to ensure people served an extreme risk order don’t have extra time to use their firearms. 

“When people are in crisis they cannot have [guns] for 48 hours. We’ve seen too many tragedies,” said Meredith Machen, who spoke in favor of the bill on behalf of the American Association of University Women.

Second, the bill would explicitly allow law enforcement officers to file a petition for an extreme risk firearm protection order “based on credible information that the officer collected while carrying out the officer’s official duties.” 

The clarification was necessitated by a difference of opinions among New Mexico’s district courts, which were split on whether law enforcement officers could file the petitions under existing law, sponsor Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, told the committee.

Carolyn Huynh, deputy chief of the New Mexico State Police, said at Tuesday’s meeting the agency supports the bill. 

The bill faced significant pushback from the committee’s Republican members, Reps. Stefani Lord of Sandia Park and John Block of Alamogordo.

“I don’t think we should ever take a person’s life, liberty or property without having their say, and I don’t want the Second Amendment ever infringed on,” Lord said.

Representatives of gun rights groups including the National Rifle Association and local shooting clubs spoke against the bill, arguing the expansion of the law would result in the removal of firearms without adequate protections for gun owners. 

“Such drastic measures not only infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens, but it also raises serious concerns about due process,” said Anthony Segura, executive director of the New Mexico Shooting Sports Association.