New Mexico Democrats Set Sights on Gun Store Owners

New Mexico Democrats are pushing gun control legislation that bans the most popular semiautomatic rifle in the country and creates new restrictions/requirements for gun store owners.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reported that the legislation, Senate Bill 17, passed out of the state’s Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee this week via Democrat votes.

The bill contains “a minimum age and background checks for…[gun store] workers, inventory and sales tracking, and security requirements.”

The text of Senate Bill 17 shows that the “security requirements” include:

…Site hardening, including locks on doors and windows and other features. Features shall be designed to prevent unauthorized entry, which may include bars or grates, security screens and commercial-grade metal doors; installation and use of video surveillance systems, including video recording devices at each point of sale and each entrance and exit to the premises, which shall be recorded from both the indoor and outdoor vantage point, and the dealer shall maintain such recordings for a period of not less than two years; and other reasonable requirements, as determined by the department and the attorney general, to reduce the risk of burglaries at dealers’ premises and the theft of firearms in shipment to and from dealers’ premises.

Sen. Jay Block (R-Rio Rancho) described the bill as “the worst mockery of the Second Amendment in the state’s history.”

He added, “Instead of trying to hold violent and repeat criminals accountable, radical left Democrats are targeting law-abiding New Mexicans and small-business owners.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at [email protected].