(NM) Concealed Handgun License Bill Becomes a Joke

From the Santa Fe New Mexican:

A bill to allow New Mexicans to carry concealed handguns has cleared its final committee and now heads to the House floor for a vote, possibly as soon as today.

The House Appropriations and Finance Committee on Wednesday amended the bill to raise the age for obtaining a gun permit from 21 to 25. The committee then passed the bills along to the floor by an 11-to-6 vote.

Sen. Shannon Robinson, D-Albuquerque, sponsor of the bill, was unhappy with the amendment.

"You've got to be 25 years old?" Robinson said after the committee vote. "Most of the soldiers that are fighting right now in Iraq are between 18 to 25, and you can't trust them with a gun here? I think that's a mistake."

But opponents welcomed the amendment.

Bill Jordan, spokesman for New Mexico Voices For Children, said after the vote that raising the age for permits will help keep guns out of the hands of young people who, at age 21, become old enough to buy alcohol.

"The Legislature has spent an inordinate amount of time talking about the deadly combination of alcohol and cars and refuse to discuss the deadly combination of alcohol and guns," Jordan said. "We think there should be a discussion of that."

The Senate has already passed the handgun bill, but the going has been slower on the House side. Rep. John Heaton, D-Carlsbad, is carrying the bill in the House.

In addition to raising the age for a permit, House committees have tacked on amendments reducing the length of the permits from four years to two years. Another amendment would require the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, which will administer the permit system, to issue permits within 30 days from the time a permit application is complete.

With only a few days left before the session expires this Saturday, Robinson said there won't be time to iron out differences between his original bill and the amended bill now headed to the House Floor. He said the Senate would have no choice but to concur in the version approved by the House.



I am enraged, absolutely totally enraged. They essentially made my fellow 21 year old adults unable to defend themselves. Time for a new lawsuit to get this piece of crap stricken off the books, because there is absolutely ZERO justification for putting the age at 25 years. None!!!

:barf: :barf: :barf:

I agree.

If you're old enough to die for your country at age 18, you're old enough to own a weapon and drink alcohol.

I realize that I'm not from New Mexico, but this requires a major alert to be sent out. The biggest issue with the bill is the 25 age requirement, which makes people my age vernerable to criminal for no other reason than fears about 21 year olds drinking alcohol. If they could set it to 25, they could set it to 30, 35, or any age limit they want.

I urge ALL New Mexico residents to call their state house reps and demand that they relower the age back to 21, or even lower if possible. This is especially true of 18-25 year olds there, because they need to make clear that any attempt to pass the bill with a 25 age limit disarms them from being able to defend themselves from criminals, and makes them now targets for serial killers, like the ones in Baton Rouge.

Also, if the bill does become law with the age 25 requirement, a lawsuit must be filed against this law. The NM House ruined the bill with an unconstitutionally high age distinction, and if it doesn't get amended in the House floor, the CCW law will say that you have to be 25 to get a permit.

To this, if you're between the ages of 21 and 25, apply, and get denied. Then sue.

But let's make sure that doesn't happen. Call your House Reps NOW!! We only have two more days to do it.

Why would 21 be better. You're an adult at 18. Are you not entitled to exercise the civil rights of an adult American?

Oleg .... how about some posters of college coeds who need to be able to defend themselves ...?

I know it would be a sacrifice to take those photos, but ... ;)

http://www.a-human-right.com/s_am18.jpg (http://www.a-human-right.com/am18.jpg)

This might need updating for NM situation, will see what I can do about it tonight.

Should put something like that in the Albuquerque newspapers ...

Let me know, I could even kick in 10 bucks or so to help out.

In my part of Colorado, the sheriff recently lowered the age of eligibility from 25 to 21.

I see no reason legal adults should be denied the right to keep and bear arms.

It is agitating that one has to ask the gov't to excercise a basic right .