National Rifle Association certified instructor, NRA range safety officer, New Mexico Department of Public Safety instructor and concealed-carry instructor Steve Akins addresses the shortcomings in recent legislation. Excerpted from a column in The Albuquerque Tribune.
The changes to New Mexico’s Right to Carry gun law that were adopted during the 2005 legislative session took effect June 17.
Significant progress was made during the session, but there are some issues that remain unresolved. Some of the initiatives ended with less than completely desirable results for concealed-carry advocates.
We succeeded in getting the minimum age for concealed carry lowered from 25 to 21. This is a big step forward, but still we need to recognize that this minimum age fails to address our military personnel in the 18-to-20 age group. They are trained for combat and expected to use firearms, putting their lives on the line to defend their country. Yet they are not trusted to carry a concealed firearm to defend themselves or their families here in New Mexico.
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We made a common-sense change in the caliber-qualification requirement. Now, a licensee can qualify with a large-caliber firearm and is authorized then to carry any lesser caliber of the same category – that is, semiautomatic or revolver.
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A limitation was added in New Mexico saying a licensee may carry only one concealed firearm at a time. That limitation is ridiculous, in that licensees often carry a primary and a backup firearm. In New Mexico, they can’t legally do so.
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A major failure was our inability to address the alcohol-establishment issue. Under the law, a licensee may not carry a concealed firearm into any licensed alcohol establishment. Doing so would turn the most law-abiding, trustworthy citizen in the state into a felon.
That means licensees must disarm before shopping for groceries – going into a Wal-Mart, for example, or trying to pay for gas inside a convenience store if it sells alcohol. Not only is this an encouragement to those that have no respect for the law and find safe havens to rob or injure others in such establishments, it also requires a licensee to leave a firearm unattended in his or her vehicle.