The Santa Fe City Council’s meeting room was filled to overflowing for Wednesday’s hearing on a plan to ban gun magazines with more than 10 rounds. (Greg Sorber/journal)
ABQ Journal
SANTA FE — A controversial Santa Fe ordinance that would have banned the possession, sale or transfer of any gun magazine with more than 10 rounds of ammunition went down in defeat late Wednesday night. The vote against the ban was 6-2 after nearly three hours of pro and con public comment on the measure.
Supporters of banning high-capacity magazines said a common thread in recent mass shootings was the use of guns that allowed a large number of bullets to be used in a short period of time. The small amount of time necessary for shooters to reload their weapons has the potential to save lives, some said. Others said it’s time for the government to start enacting greater gun control legislation.
Opponents, including representatives of the Republican Party of New Mexico and National Rifle Association, said the ordinance is a violation of their constitutional right to bear arms and people have the right to protect themselves and their loved ones. They said the ordinance won’t make Santa Fe safer, will infringe on responsible gun owners and will be difficult to enforce. The city will also waste money defending the ordinance in court, some said.
Where are all the Hispanic people in that picture? And what about the blacks. I thought gun rights was an equal opportunity cause?
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
I did a quick check and found that there is a state preemption law in place. The article doesnt mention it and a question I'd like to throw out is this, since it would seem that the law would violate state preemption, is this just one of those public ststement laws, like voting to become a nuclear free zone?
ReplyDeleteSeveral cities have also done something similar by passing ordinances requiring ownership of firearms(unless you dont really want to)
Many states do have a preemption law. After adopting theirs, Floride discovered several cities that intentionally refused to repeal or stop enforcing local ordinances. Their solution was to amend the law to include a large fine on the cities.
What? Are you assuming that everyone there is there to support gun rights and oppose the measure?
ReplyDeleteBut I thought that the vast majority of the public, including most gun owners, WANTED new gun control measures. Aren't most of those people there demanding the ban?
Nobody surveys a room for skin color as much as MikeB.
ReplyDeleteSanta Fe is an odd town. It's surrounded by communities with lots of Hispanics, but the city itself has a lot of affluent whites and trendy artists.
ReplyDeleteBut the important thing to note is that in the free states in this country, gun control keeps losing.
You're right there are lots of Hispanics, but not too many at this meeting.
Delete1. I said in the surrounding communities.
Delete2. So? Why are you obsessed with race?
Most faces are too blurry to tell if they've got hispanic ancestry or not, but we can tell that if they are hispanics, they're WHITE hispanics, which count as white people when guns are an issue, but as brown people when we're talking about how diverse the Democratic party is. Catch up, Greg, Mike's rules are perfectly clear.
DeleteSante Fe is also the most liberal city in a blue state.
ReplyDelete