One year later: Is anyone enforcing New Mexico’s gun sale background check law?

Critics said it was a pointless, unenforceable law and supporters said it would keep New Mexicans safer. The law requiring background checks on private gun sales has been in place for more than a year now. It makes it a misdemeanor to sell a gun without getting a background check on the buyer, with the exception of immediate family members and law enforcement. “It’s really just to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them,” said Rep. Debbie Sarinana (D-Albuquerque). In the first year since that law went into effect on July 1, 2019, court records show that no one was charged with violating the law. “We spent a lot of time, a lot of resources and a lot of money trying to enact this law that’s done absolutely nothing,” said Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace. As the president of the New Mexico Sheriffs’ Association, Sheriff Mace has been an outspoken opponent of the legislation since lawmakers proposed it in the Roundhouse. Still, when she signed it into law, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham seemed confident that even sheriffs who opposed it would get on board. “They will enforce this law,” she said. “They will do their job and duty.” However, one year later, Sheriff Mace still told KRQE News 13, “We’re not enforcing it.”

The Governor issued a statement to KRQE which begins:

"Sheriffs are not legislative or judicial bodies. Their role is law enforcement – they don’t get to decide to not do so because they don’t like it."

Yes they do. Law enforcement officers exercise discretion every day.  

Coercive authority is central to the police role, and the discretionary use of police authority is a decision-making process, as officers evaluate the situations in which they intervene and choose a course of action from among a set of alternatives.

For instance, if they see a traffic violation, they decide whether or not to stop the vehicle, and whether or not to arrest, ticket or issue a warning. That type of discretion is widely used by LEO's concerning all types of laws. 

There is also prosecutorial discretion.

Prosecutorial discretion is when a prosecutor has the power to decide whether or not to charge a person for a crime, and which criminal charges to file...Prosecutorial discretion also allows prosecutors not to file charges, to drop charges or to offer a plea deal.

It would appear the Sheriff's have more discretionary authority than the Governor indicates.

Although the article was concerning gun control, the Governor also chose to raise the issue of local enforcement of her lock down edicts.

"Perhaps if some sheriff’s offices spent a little less time blatantly flouting critical public health policies, they would be more able to invest their time in protecting their communities from gun violence. Although perhaps I shouldn’t hold my breath in thinking that they would want to take action to protect their communities, given that so many of them apparently have no interest in protecting the public from a deadly pandemic."

 Those type of spiteful, vindictive comments don't enlighten anyone and are a direct attack on duly elected local officers and the folks who voted for them.