New Mexico’s state Senate has passed a bill that would hold companies that sell certain gun parts liable if the weapons are used to commit crimes.
This is part of an overall effort to target companies that manufacture and sell firearms and their parts. State Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces) championed the measure because he believes it is too easy to purchase parts that can convert semiautomatic firearms into automatic weapons.
Senate Bill 318 would expand the state’s definitions within the Unfair Practices Act to cover a wider array of guns and “destructive devices.” This category includes any “explosive, incendiary or poison gas: bomb; grenade; rocket having a propellant charge of more than four ounces.”
The bill would classify the illegal manufacturing, marketing, distributing, or selling of firearms and other items as unfair or deceptive trade practices. It would target anyone “knowingly manufacturing, advertising, distributing or offering for sale a firearm, destructive device, firearm part or firearm accessory contrary to the laws of New Mexico or the United States.”
One of the provisions addresses actions “causing confusion or misunderstanding as to the source, sponsorship, approval or certification of goods and services.” It would create more robust enforcement mechanisms against businesses and individuals involved in the manufacture of firearms and their related parts.
In a statement, Cervantes said the objective of the bill is “making sure that those who manufacture, distribute, market, and sell weapon conversion devices are held liable for the consequences of doing so.”
He referenced the 2019 mass shooting that took place at a Walmart in El Paso when “a man driving hundreds of miles specifically to El Paso to kill Mexicans and relying on one of these so-called ‘Glock switches.’”
The lawmaker added: “You shouldn’t be able to take a Glock and convert a handgun to shoot 40 rounds a second.”
The bill would impose significantly higher penalties against companies that are found to have sold these products if they are used to commit a crime. Victims of these offenses could receive statutory damages of $250,000 per violation. It would empower courts to award “up to three times the actual damages or ten thousand dollars ($10,000) whichever is greater.”
Under this measure, New Mexico’s jurisdiction would be expanded to include online companies.
The bill has also garnered widespread criticism from Republican lawmakers. Senate Minority Floor Leader William Sharer slammed the bill, characterizing it as “a gun bill that doesn’t have anything to do with guns.” Instead, the bill is about “suing anybody for any reason, if we can find the smallest reason that it might have possibly been unfair to somebody, somewhere.”
State Jay Block argued that the measure would only benefit lawyers. “This is nothing but a money grab bill and everybody knows it,” he insisted.
Anti-gunner politicians in New Mexico have pushed a number of laws aimed at curbing gun ownership. Democrats in the state legislature proposed a bill in February that would ban semiautomatic rifles.
If there are still some people with sanity in New Mexico’s government, this bill will not pass. Not only will it fail to keep anyone safe, it is clearly a money grab for attorneys, as Block indicated.
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