ABQ City Council overwhelmingly rejects two anti-gun bills

On Monday afternoon, the Albuquerque City Council voted down two anti-gun ordinances, O-19-82 and O-19-83, with both measures failing 3-6. 

These two measures, O-19-82, and O-19-83 aimed to severely limit gun protections for citizens, with 19-82 sponsored by City Councilor Pat Davis proposing mandates on how gun owners can store their firearms, with locked storage mandates, and 19-83 sponsored by Councilors Pat Davis, Isaac Benton, and Diane Gibson banning all firearms from buildings owned or leased by the City of Albuquerque. 

According to the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, the two bills would have done the following: 

Ordinance O-19-82 mandates locked storage requirements for any firearms outside your immediate possession or control, with fines and/or jail time for violations.  Requiring all firearms out of arm’s reach to be stored with a lock or in a locked container will render them useless in self-defense situations and most recreational or competitive shooting scenarios.  New Mexico already has a child abuse/endangerment statute that gives law enforcement and district attorneys the tools to charge and prosecute parents or guardians in appropriate cases when their child gains unauthorized access to a firearm and commits a crime or injures himself or another.  This ordinance is expected to be considered at the Council’s meeting on Monday, September 21, at 3:00 pm.

Ordinance O-19-83 bans firearms at any building owned or leased by the city for conducting business with the public, including city hall, city libraries, city community centers, city parks and recreation facilities.  This would negate your right to carry and protect yourself in these taxpayer-owned buildings and facilities and nullify your state-issued concealed handgun license in countless locations.  Criminals would ignore these newly-created gun-free zones that leave law-abiding citizens defenseless.  This measure is expected to be considered at the Council’s meeting on Monday, September 21, at 3:00 pm.

The pro-Second Amendment victory is the third straight win for firearm advocates this month, previously on September 9, the Council voted down a measure by 5-4 to urge the New Mexico legislature to strip the “firearms pre-emption clause” from Article II, Section 6 of the state Constitution. The measure would ask for the revision to the article of the Constitution to be put on the ballot for voters’ approval.