New Mexico Semi-Auto Ban Bill Advances

Unfortunately, anti-gunners are capable of learning. 

Most assault weapon bans that have gone on the books have been about cosmetic features. You can have only so many “evil features” before it’s prohibited. California’s, for example, does this in such a way that makes it difficult to find a way to have something like an AR-style rifle at all. 

By focusing on features, though, companies can find a way to comply with the law while still giving people what they want, more or less.

But with the GOSAFER Act that was dropped in Congress during the Biden administration, the focus started to shift. That bill banned gas-operated semi-automatic firearms, which account for most semi-auto rifles.

That bill didn’t get much traction despite a significant push by the media, but that doesn’t mean the idea is dead. New Mexico has a proposal that would do the same thing there.

And the bill just advanced out of committee on Friday.

On a 5-4 vote, SB279 the gas operated firearm ban and magazine ban passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. The next scheduled stop for the bill is the Senate Finance Committee. #2a #nmpol #nmleg

— NM Shooting Sports Association (@NM_SSA) March 8, 2025

There’s still a long enough road for this bill, to be sure, but this is still bad news.

First, there’s just the fact that this won’t accomplish anything so far as addressing New Mexico’s violent crime issues. So-called assault weapons aren’t the preferred murder weapon for pretty much any group out there, in part because they’re too obvious.

Second, even if they were, they’ll just traffic them in from other states or from across the Mexican border. Yeah, I know guns usually go the other direction, but if the cartels see a way to make a profit, do you really think they won’t find a way to get into the illicit gun trade? 

Please.

We also have to think about the fact that while these rifles might not be ideal for criminal activities, they’re pretty useful in dealing with criminal activities such as home invasion. When you’ve got a group coming at your home in the middle of the night, this is the best thing most of us can buy to protect ourselves and our families. I’d personally prefer something belt-fed, myself, but that’s out of my range. A modern sporting rifle is a more realistic choice.

Then we have the fact that this is likely to be considered unconstitutional by the courts. Even the Miller decision works against this bill, as that decision may have given the green light to prohibiting certain kinds of guns, but it does find that the only guns that applies to are those that are unsuited for maintaining the well-regulated militia. Well, I’m pretty sure the AR-15 and other modern sporting rifles are going to fall into the category of those that are useful for that purpose.

And that doesn’t even get into Bruen’s history, text, and tradition standard, this this cannot and will not meet.

The problem here is that anti-gun states and anti-gun lawmakers aren’t really concerned about what’s constitutional or not, at least not until they can use the Constitution as a shield against the laws they don’t like. It’s also funny how often they claim stuff is unconstitutional when it’s not. None of them have ever read it, but I digress.

A bill like this should never make it out of committee, and the fact that it’s made it out of one is bad enough. If it gets a vote and gets passed, what will happen is that the people of New Mexico will pay for a lawsuit they’ll never win. In the meantime, though, how many law-abiding citizens will get hurt?

I already know that no lives will be saved.