Legislative session ends with calls for action on gun violence

As Las Cruces residents reeled in the aftermath of a mass shooting on March 21, Republican legislators and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham pointed fingers at Democratic lawmakers and called for a special session to address gun violence even as the regular 60-day session entered its final hours.

The Young Park shooting on March 21 took the lives of three and injured a reported 15 others. Las Cruces Police have arrested four suspects in connection with the shooting. During Lujan Grisham’s post-legislative session talk, she devoted close to 30 minutes of her nearly hour-long talk to the shooting, calling it “horrific,” and saying that the state stands ready to provide resources to support Las Cruces in the wake of the shooting.

“In respect to that community, we are having what can be viewed as recognizing wins and disappointments (from the legislative session). This is not the day to be doing that at the end of this 60-day session,” she said.

Lujan Grisham said 270 bills on public safety and crime were introduced into the 2025 legislature but only nine of her proposals were passed and an additional 18 were passed but some of those were connected to emergency response. She called it “shameful.”

“There was not a single productive debate on reducing juvenile crime,” she said.

She did not announce a date for a special session but she said she has told state lawmakers to be ready for one. She previously convened a special session to address public safety last year.

“We will do more sooner rather than later,” she said.

During the press conference on Saturday, Republicans announced that they had sent a letter to Lujan Grisham requesting a special session to address public safety and healthcare.

“New Mexicans have been demanding real action to address the growing crime crisis,” House Minority Whip Rep. Alan Martinez, R-Rio Rancho, said in a press conference following the session. 

One Democratic senator representing Doña Ana County has come under attack. Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, is the chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, which has a reputation in the Roundhouse of being a place bills go to die. A piece of legislation that made it through Senate Judiciary has activists upset because Cervantes broke party lines and voted against the bill.

Senate Bill 279 sought to prohibit gas-powered semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines.

The group New Mexico Students Demand Action is among the advocacy organizations that say this type of legislation is needed to address gun violence.

“I grew up in Las Cruces – I know the park, the neighborhood and some of the victims that were there – this shooting is personal,”Leighanne Muñoz, a New Mexico Students Demand Action volunteer and National Organizing Board Member, said in a press release. 
"Lawmakers in the Roundhouse chose to play politics with our safety – and today we have been reminded how inaction is a death sentence. My senator, Joseph Cervantes, blocked legislation to ban assault weapons and after last night, it’s time he asked himself if he plans to turn a blind eye while his constituents die or if he’ll actually do what he was elected to do and vote for gun safety.” 

SB 279 passed the Judiciary Committee on a 5-4 vote, but stalled before making it to the Senate floor.

Cervantes expressed concerns about the bill’s constitutionality and said he suspected it would be challenged and overturned in the state’s Supreme Court. 

During the Judiciary Committee’s debate on SB 279, Cervantes spoke about mass shootings, including the one that happened in El Paso at a Walmart in 2019. He said he welcomes the chance to explore ways to address access to certain weapons, but it has to be constitutional. In particular, he expressed concern about the definition centering around gas-operated. He said no other state has implemented a ban using a gas-operated definition.

Meanwhile, Cervantes sought to limit the ability to convert firearms into automatic weapons by sponsoring SB 318, which would have created penalties for selling conversion devices such as “Glock switches.”

That bill passed the Senate with just four days left in the session and made it through the House Judiciary Committee on a 6-4 vote before time ran out.

Sen. Crystal Brantley, R-Elephant Butte, who represents a portion of Doña Ana County, joined Cervantes in voting against SB 279.

“I think we came into this legislative session with good intentions to address public safety, to push back on the criminals that are plaguing this state,” Brantley said during the Judiciary hearing on SB 279. “This is not going to do it. This then targets the law-abiding citizens, the ones that join you in being sick and tired of the crime that’s taken over New Mexico.”

Brantley sponsored legislation focused on increasing penalties. One of those bills, Senate Bill 95, would have made it a capital felony if someone distributes fentanyl or a fentanyl-related substance to a person who later dies because of using the drug. SB 95 was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it was never heard. She also sponsored SB 187, seeking to have people sentenced to death if they are found guilty of murdering a law enforcement officer. New Mexico has not had the death penalty since 2009. Like SB 95, the bill was never heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

House Bill 8, which did pass with bipartisan support, included six different pieces of public safety legislation, including one that would prohibit devices to turn semi-automatic weapons into automatic weapons. HB 8 also included criminal competency reform and measures to address fentanyl trafficking. 

Meanwhile, Rep. Angelica Rubio, D-Las Cruces, sponsored HB 253, which would have resulted in sealing eviction records, and HB 9, the Immigrant Safety Act. Both bills made it through the House and reached the Senate Judiciary Committee toward the end of the legislative session. Neither were heard in Judiciary.