SENATE MEMORIAL 51

53rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2017

INTRODUCED BY

William P. Soules

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE APPROPRIATE INTERIM LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE TO STUDY POTENTIAL CHANGES TO STATE STATUTES TO PROVIDE GREATER GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION AND SAFEGUARDS FOR ALL LEVELS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS.

     WHEREAS, the frequency of firearms attacks and gun violence has continued to increase since the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, where twenty first-grade students and six adults were gunned down; and

     WHEREAS, the gun violence archive, a nonprofit corporation formed to provide access to accurate information about gun-related violence in the United States, reports that from January 1 to August 11, 2016, there were three thousand five hundred eighty-four gun-related incidents and eight thousand six hundred eleven deaths; and

     WHEREAS, of the total number of gun-related deaths or injuries, three hundred ninety-three were children aged up to eleven years old and one thousand eight hundred eighty-eight involved teens aged twelve to seventeen; and

     WHEREAS, the most recent mass murder in New Mexico was on June 11, 2016 in Roswell, when one adult and four children aged three, seven, eleven and fourteen died as a result of gun violence; and

     WHEREAS, there is a national trend of increased use of guns in student suicides, which is greater than that of student homicides in schools; and

     WHEREAS, from 1999 to 2015, the suicide rate among New Mexico youth aged ten to twenty-four years was consistently at least sixty percent higher than that of the United States, according to department of health statistics; and

     WHEREAS, department of health statistics also report that from 2011 to 2015, suicide rates among youth increased significantly with advancing age groups from ten to fourteen years, fifteen to nineteen years and twenty to twenty-four years and were higher for males than females in every age group; and

     WHEREAS, it would be beneficial for a task force to study the means by which firearms are purchased and transferred in the state and to consider potential changes to state statutes to ensure the safety and well-being of school-age children and young adults;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the appropriate interim legislative committee study potential changes to state statutes to provide greater gun violence prevention and safeguards for all levels of violence against school-age children and young adults; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the appropriate interim legislative committee publish a report of its findings and recommendations at the conclusion of the 2017 interim; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the secretary of public education and the co-chairs of the New Mexico legislative council.

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