Following Advocacy and Testimony from Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action Volunteers, New Mexico Lawmakers Advance Gun Safety Measures

The New Mexico chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety, today released the following statement after the House Consumer and Public Affairs passed HB 9, legislation to require firearms to be securely stored away from children, with bipartisan support and HB 96, legislation to create a $10 million violence intervention program fund to provide grants to state agencies, counties, municipalities, and tribal governments – which would be a first for the state. 

“Every morning, I wake up to new stories about gun violence and it’s exhausting,” said Lorian Kostranchuk, a volunteer with the New Mexico chapter of Moms Demand Action. “In a short session, it’s imperative to keep the momentum going and urgently advance these types of measures so we can start protecting our communities as soon as possible. We’re grateful that our lawmakers seem to feel the same way. We’ll continue to advocate for these bills to be swiftly passed and signed into law.” 

Violence Intervention Program funding supports community-based violence intervention programs that apply a localized approach to reducing gun violence in New Mexico’s hardest-hit neighborhoods. These programs apply a public health model to ending gun violence and keeping New Mexico communities safe. This funding is more important than ever as our communities continue to face devastating upticks in gun violence across the state – including record levels in Albuquerque last year. 

Secure firearm storage reduces the risk of gun violence, particularly among children, by helping to prevent school shootings, unintentional shootings, and gun suicides. The secure storage legislation is named after Bennie Hargrove, a middle school student who was shot and killed by another student who brought their father’s unsecured firearm to school. Right now, it’s estimated that 5.4 million children live in a home with at least one unsecured firearm. That is an increase of 800,000 children since 2015. This information follows record gun sales since the pandemic began, including a reported surge in first-time gun owners. School districts across the country, including the Santa Fe Public School District, have implemented secure storage notification policies, to make sure that parents know that it’s their responsibility to keep their guns securely stored. It’s up to state lawmakers to build on this important work and pass legislation to require guns to be stored securely when they are not under a person’s direct control.

More information about secure storage legislation can be found here. Statistics about gun violence in New Mexico are available here, and Everytown’s Gun Law Navigator