Local lawmakers: Mixed feelings on legislative session

With the end of the 30-day legislative session on Thursday and nearly 70 bills awaiting Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s signature, area lawmakers said the session was an up-hill battle for gun rights.

“It was a tough session, but I think all in all we got some things done. … We stood up really hard for the Second Amendment rights,” Rep. Jack Chatfield, R-Mosquero, said.

Sen. Greg Nibert, R-Roswell, said only four Republican bills made it in the cut. He said though it was supposed to be a budget session, gun-control was the dominating discussion among lawmakers.

“In my perspective, we felt like we did a pretty good job in keeping a lot of the egregious stuff from coming to the top and passing,” Nibert said.

Sen. Pat Woods, R-Broadview, said some of the positive aspects in the session were the defeat of some of the gun bills advocated by Democrats.

“We did defeat a couple of those gun bills, one of them was the ban on assault weapons and another one was to raise the purchase age to 21. There was also one to assess a new tax on firearms and ammo and we defeated that,” Woods said.

The governor said last week she may call a special session to focus on public safety.

Only five public safety initiatives made it to her desk, including a stricter punishment for attempted murder, a seven-day waiting period for gun sales, banning guns at polling places and allowing public safety retirees to return to work.

Nibert said he doesn’t believe there was enough effort from the majority Democratic party in addressing the crime rates. He said he is disheartened by the Legislature’s stance on crime and its efforts in alleviating it.

“Generally we did one or two little things, but in my mind nothing of significance really tackled the crime issue. We have done very little to brag about in fixing the crime issue in Albuquerque and the state. And I’m saddened by that,” Nibert said.

Nibert did give Grisham credit for trying to push lawmakers into addressing crime.

Woods said he hopes Grisham follows up with a special session. He said New Mexico is suffering from a major crime problem and if it isn’t handled properly it could worsen.

“She (Grisham) thought ‘We’ll do more gun bills and that’s good crime bills.’ Well it’s not the registered gun owner that is doing these crimes, it’s the criminals,” Woods said.

Chatfield said he doesn’t think Grisham will follow through on a special session.

“It’s her way of throwing a little tantrum for all the things she didn’t get and her only answer to crime is to take the guns away from good people,” Chatfield said.