SENATE MEMORIAL 2

53rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2018

INTRODUCED BY

William P. Soules

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY, THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND THE CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES DEPARTMENT TO COLLECT DATA ON GUN-RELATED INJURIES AND DEATHS; 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 as of December 14, 2017, there were fifty-eight thousand three hundred sixty-eight gun-related incidents and fourteen thousand seven hundred twenty-six gun-related deaths in the country in 2017; and

     WHEREAS, of the total number of those gun-related incidents, six hundred ninety-four involved the injury or death of children aged up to eleven years old and three thousand ninety-four involved the injury or death of children aged twelve to seventeen; and

     WHEREAS, in New Mexico, men murder women at the third- highest rate in the country, and children were present in twenty-nine percent of law enforcement reports of domestic violence in 2017; and

     WHEREAS, the most recent mass murder in New Mexico was in 2016 in Roswell, when one adult and four children died;

     WHEREAS, in 2017, in shootings in Clovis and Aztec, two adults and three children were killed and several children were injured 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, including 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;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the department of public safety be requested to collect statewide data on gun-related homicides, including data on whether a person prohibited from purchasing a firearm was involved; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the department of health be requested to collect statewide data from emergency rooms on gun-related injuries and deaths; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the children, youth and families department be requested to collect statewide data on gun-related injuries and deaths of children in its custody; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the department of public safety, the department of health and the children, youth and families department be requested to prepare reports of the data collected by each department through October 1, 2018, in accordance with this memorial, and present those reports to the appropriate interim committee that addresses crime and public safety; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the appropriate interim legislative committee be requested to 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 be requested to publish a report of its findings and recommendations at the conclusion of the 2018 interim; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the secretaries of public education, public safety, health and children, youth and families and to the co-chairs of the New Mexico legislative council.

- 4 -