Bernalillo County’s District Attorney is calling for expanded limits on existing gun laws. According to the Albuquerque Journal, District Attorney Raúl Torrez sent a letter to Gov. Susana Martinez last week which said his office had examined the state’s current gun laws and felt that some changes needed to be made in response to the national rise in school shootings.Torrez advised expanding the list of people prohibited from possessing firearms. Currently, state law only prohibits the sale of firearms to those who have been convicted of a felony as adults. Torrez says the list should also include violent juvenile offenders, anyone convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence charges, all offenders subject to orders of protection filed in domestic violence cases and those too incompetent to stand trial. He also suggested the state increase its ability to seize firearms used in felonies and violent crimes and improve its system for reporting offenders to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.Last Saturday, April 14, a number of gun advocates gathered at the capitol to show support for the Second Amendment. KOB4 reported that while they expressed the fear that the government might remove their rights, participants held widely varying views on national gun policy.
Newscity: Cervantes Still In Race
A judge has ruled that state Sen. Joseph Cervantes qualifies to run for the Democratic nomination in the state’s Gubernatorial race.Democratic Gubernatorial candidate and former media executive Jeff Apodaca filed a lawsuit against Cervantes, alleging that the state senator failed to submit enough valid petition signatures to legally run for the Democratic nomination in the race. According to the suit, 1,400 signatures on the petition were invalid—including duplicate names, non-Democrats and unregistered individuals. However, a state district judge dismissed the suit earlier this month and rejected a motion for reconsideration filed last week. The judge found that Apodaca’s attorneys failed to serve the complaint on the Attorney General’s Office.While three Democrats will now be vying for the Gubernatorial nomination, Congressman Steve Pearce will be running unopposed for the Republican ticket.
Newscity: Amber Alert Expanded To Tribal Land
A bill expanding a national child abduction alert service’s coverage to include tribal lands was signed into law by President Donald Trump last week.The Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act, a bill sponsored by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, will now give Native tribes permanent access to federal grants associated with the AMBER Alert system, a nationwide program that gives up-to-date alerts regarding child abduction cases. The bill was named after an 11-year-old Navajo girl who was sexually assaulted and murdered on a New Mexico reservation in 2016.McCain told reporters he hopes the new law will expedite child abduction alerts and help save lives.
