- Jul 27, 2006
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It wasn’t taken up on the Senate floor until the final 35 minutes of the 60-day session and a bill aimed at closing what advocates say is the gun show loophole died one step short of reaching the governor’s desk.
“This bill will come back,” Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, said on the Senate floor of House Bill 77 that called for establishing a procedure to align the state’s mental health and criminal conviction records with the federal instant background check system.
As the session went into its final days, HB77 generated all the conflicting feelings, odd political alliances and passion over the 2nd Amendment and firearms in general that has roiled the entire country.
On the one hand, the expected battle lines between gun rights conservatives who hated the bill and liberals loved it emerged.
But there were a number of Roundhouse Republicans who supported the bill and took heat from the right for doing so — including Gov. Susana Martinez, who said she’d sign the measure if it got to her desk because of the bill’s provision dealing with mental health.
Yet while rank and file Democrats in the Roundhouse supported the bill, it didn’t get heard in the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee until the final days of the session and didn’t get heard until 11:25 a.m. Saturday — 35 minutes before the session came to an end.
“I knew because of the comments that had been made by other senators that there were numerous amendments (that would have been added),” said Sen. Sanchez. “What would have happened if we had introduced in the early morning (Saturday), it would have been filibustered and we wouldn’t have gotten any other pieces of legislation out of here.”
There had been speculation in the Roundhouse that some Democrats didn’t want to see the bill head to the governor’s desk because, by signing the legislation, it would give her an opportunity to be seen as a moderate.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Miguel Garcia, D-Albuquerque, disagreed with that perception.
“That never crossed the path of this bill whatsoever,” Rep. Garcia told New Mexico Watchdog, who said he’ll bring the bill back in the 2014 session.
The governor mentioned the gun show bill when talking to reporters Saturday after the session ended as one of the things in which “I have received flack within my own party” and Sanchez said, “The governor and I don’t see eye to eye on many things but we agree on this bill.”
Then, he added a bit of jab, saying, “If she truly supports this bill she’ll put it on the call” when the Legislature meets again.
Capitol Report | New Mexico » ?Gun show loophole? bill runs out of time
“This bill will come back,” Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, said on the Senate floor of House Bill 77 that called for establishing a procedure to align the state’s mental health and criminal conviction records with the federal instant background check system.
As the session went into its final days, HB77 generated all the conflicting feelings, odd political alliances and passion over the 2nd Amendment and firearms in general that has roiled the entire country.
On the one hand, the expected battle lines between gun rights conservatives who hated the bill and liberals loved it emerged.
But there were a number of Roundhouse Republicans who supported the bill and took heat from the right for doing so — including Gov. Susana Martinez, who said she’d sign the measure if it got to her desk because of the bill’s provision dealing with mental health.
Yet while rank and file Democrats in the Roundhouse supported the bill, it didn’t get heard in the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee until the final days of the session and didn’t get heard until 11:25 a.m. Saturday — 35 minutes before the session came to an end.
“I knew because of the comments that had been made by other senators that there were numerous amendments (that would have been added),” said Sen. Sanchez. “What would have happened if we had introduced in the early morning (Saturday), it would have been filibustered and we wouldn’t have gotten any other pieces of legislation out of here.”
There had been speculation in the Roundhouse that some Democrats didn’t want to see the bill head to the governor’s desk because, by signing the legislation, it would give her an opportunity to be seen as a moderate.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Miguel Garcia, D-Albuquerque, disagreed with that perception.
“That never crossed the path of this bill whatsoever,” Rep. Garcia told New Mexico Watchdog, who said he’ll bring the bill back in the 2014 session.
The governor mentioned the gun show bill when talking to reporters Saturday after the session ended as one of the things in which “I have received flack within my own party” and Sanchez said, “The governor and I don’t see eye to eye on many things but we agree on this bill.”
Then, he added a bit of jab, saying, “If she truly supports this bill she’ll put it on the call” when the Legislature meets again.
Capitol Report | New Mexico » ?Gun show loophole? bill runs out of time
