guns and politics

I got to the Albuquerque City Council chambers a half hour before the sign-up would start for comments on the proposal to urge a state law establishing the Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Act.  There were already about twenty people ahead of me in the line, but I was still within the thirty commenter limit.  I didn't keep a tally of the speakers.  I think about two-thirds were NRA supporters, though I don't recall any stating that affiliation.

The first commenter was a heavily tattooed drama queen who held up a pocket copy of the Constitution and loudly demanded to know if any of the councilors had read it.  She slammed the booklet on the podium and made a series of derogatory statements about politicians.  That set the tone for many of the subsequent commenters, though none of the others delivered their message with such verve.

There were a lot of shade tree lawyers, along with a couple who professed expertise in police work and terrorism monitoring.  The common threads were claims about Red Flag laws violating various parts of the Bill of Rights and judgments that the proposed legislation would not obtain the desired results -- all the usual NRA talking points with no supporting evidence.

I decided to use my 1.5 minutes to highlight a couple well-established facts; that a substantial majority of Americans support Red Flag laws, and included in that group is a majority of gun owners who also support other common sense gun regulation.  I said I thought the ERPO Act resolution was a small step, but one in the right direction, and I urged the councilors to keep on with their initiative.

The proposal that the city urge passage of a state Red Flag law passed four to two.  One of the two against supporting the recommendation said about six times that she was for "reform", but then said she would not support the recommendation to the State legislature because there was no way to know exactly what the State law would say.  That same pathetic evasion was also cited by the other "no" voting councilor.  Three other councilors did not show their faces at the meeting.

So now New Mexicans will have to wait for 2020 to see what happens with the Red Flag law and other gun control measures.  As is always the case, a lot of momentum toward gun regulation has built up following the latest horrific massacres.  It remains to be seen how much of that momentum can be sustained long enough to force the law makers to take action.

Meanwhile, there are a lot of excellent articles appearing every day on the subject of gun violence and how it might be reduced:

A chill in the air: The problem of teen suicide (Searchlight New Mexico)

Can We Prevent Mass Shootings By Preventing Suicide? (FiveThirtyEight)

Why extreme risk protection orders can make a difference (The NM Political Report)

guns and bombs

There were a couple gun violence prevention events in Albuquerque last Saturday.  One was sponsored by congresswoman Deb Haaland.  The other was a town hall at the downtown Methodist Church under the direction of three city councilors who were encouraging the State to pass a Red Flag law.  We opted to go to the church event to hear what our rep, Ike Benton, had to say about the Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Act which he hoped the State legislature could be persuaded to adopt.  The panel of speakers included three city councilors, six state legislators and an Albuquerque Public Schools board member.

After the panel presentations, the group of a hundred or so attendees broke out into three discussion groups.  At that point we were informed that a bomb threat had been received.  We were told to stay in place while a police team swept the area.  No one gave much credence to the threat, but it was reassuring to see the quick law enforcement response.

Our discussion group included activists from several local groups and a lot of good ideas, mixed in with a large dose of frustration over the halting pace of reform efforts.  I contributed the thought that the ban on CDC research into gun violence did not mean that such research and information dissemination could not be conducted by other local entities including UNM and city government.

A thorough sorting out of fundamentals is essential to ensure that proposed remedies are based on a solid understanding of underlying psychological and political realities.  I said it seemed important to me to recognize that gun possession is often folded into identity formation which helps to explain the often irrational response to common sense firearms regulation by gun owners.  There are a lot of gun owners who clearly are not a threat to themselves or others, but who at the same time present a challenge to sensible gun control measures because of paranoid fears stoked by National Rifle Association propaganda.

Councilor Benton said that the NRA was planning to send a contingent of supporters to dominate the public comments at the upcoming City Council meeting.  He expressed the hope that some of us would also show up to challenge the NRA effort to stop city endorsement of the ERPO Act.  I decided to take a shot at getting on the public comment list on Monday.