BY DAVID NORTH
White Rock
About 40% of US households own guns. Most of them follow gun laws at least as closely as football fans follow rule changes. When a Democratic legislator proposes, or even worse, successfully passes a bad law, votes shift. Critically, gun owners are more likely to vote than the average citizen*.
The balance of votes is remarkably close, and that’s true only because of the barrage of law that fails to understand guns or most of the people who own them. Had the Democratic Party tried to be rational rather than hysterical, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in today.
Most gun owners support reasonable gun control, but oppose bad gun laws that do little or nothing to minimize gun violence while driving more people away from the Democratic Party.
And ironically, gun sales to more liberal (usually Democratic-leaning) voters are on the rise**, perhaps because of recent outrages by government agents. And they’re starting to see how goofy some of the laws are.
NM SB17 is yet another example. It’s so weird the Republicans don’t even have to exaggerate their complaints. It almost certainly will put some smaller shops out of business, and it probably will turn out to be unconstitutional.
Even the Attorney General’s legislative analyst knows enough about guns to understand one of the weirder parts of the law: the unintended consequences. The broad brush they painted with will limit access to almost all smaller caliber, low-recoil pistols. They’re most popular with women who may very well have a good reason to want something for self-defense.
This law would successfully ban further sales of Scary Black Guns (there is no actual definition of an “assault rifle”) but also most Pistol Caliber Carbines, which are very popular with ranchers and other large landowners.
But it would not ban the most popular weapon used in mass shootings and most gun crime: modern mid-to-large-caliber semi-automatic pistols. So if it actually did accomplish anything, it would be to push criminals toward the more easily concealed and transported guns.
Magazine sales bans are generally a waste of time. They’re over-the-counter purchases, so it does slow folks down a little — they have to wait until the next time they travel out of state. But they certainly annoy people.
Disclaimer: I almost always vote Democrat, and that won’t change over this issue. But it will for some people, even if they just start refusing to vote Democrat, or vote at all. By proposing bad law, and propagating misinformation***, Democrats are behaving in embarrassing ways they criticize in others.
Perhaps it’s not too late to stop losing votes. Now that everyone’s getting a clearer view of what’s going on in the country, a more rational message from the Democratic camp could turn things around.
* https://www.factcheck.org/2024/05/trumps-wrong-gun-owners-more-likely-to-vote/
** https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/01/us/gun-rights-politics-alex-pretti-killing-cec
*** The day after last year’s nasty March 21 Las Cruces shootings, Governor Lujan Grisham said “New Mexicans are heartbroken, and they should also be outraged that their legislature will adjourn today without having a passed a single bill to address juvenile crime or ban assault weapons.Their inaction is appalling and unacceptable.” This is after Police Chief Story had already stated there were “no rifle casings, indicating no assault-style weapon was used”. While not quite Truman, it’s still a pretty good job of waving a red flag in the bull’s face.