New Mexico Reps. Joy Garratt (from left) and Daymon Ely and Sen. Joseph Cervantes, sponsors of the red-flag legislation, confer Friday during a floor debate in the state Senate. (AP/Morgan Lee)

SANTA FE, N.M. -- The New Mexico state Senate on Friday endorsed a red-flag gun bill that has been prompted by concerns about a mass shooting last year in El Paso, Texas, and suicide prevention efforts.

The bill won Senate approval on a 22-20 vote with Republicans and four Democrats voting against it. The proposal moves to the House, which last year approved a similar measure that languished.

Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has urged the Democratic-led Legislature to provide new avenues for law enforcement to prevent gun violence and better secure the safety of schools.

The bill as currently written would allow law enforcement officers to petition a state district court to order the temporary surrender of firearms. Complaints about gun owners by relatives or school administrators would be presented to law enforcement officials and not directly to the court.

Rural sheriffs have opposed the legislation, arguing it would infringe on constitutional guarantees and that officers can already intervene in the event of a mental health crisis and detain people for their own safety or who present a danger to others.

Sierra County Sheriff Glenn Hamilton, a legislative liaison to the New Mexico Sheriffs' Association, said Friday that the bill still "gives the appearance of a gun grab" by authorities and was unlikely to improve public safety.

Republican Senate minority leader Stuart Ingle of Portales cautioned against the legislation. "We cannot trample on constitutions in order to address the emotions of the moment," he said.

In Senate debate, bill sponsor Sen. Joseph Cervantes described ways in which the initiative addresses a long list of concerns raised by an expert aligned with the firearms industry about preserving due process rights for gun owners. One amendment Friday inserted the right to an immediate court appeal by gun owners.

He made an appeal for Senate approval, invoking the August mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso -- and highlighting allegations that the shooter, who has been charged with hate crimes, targeted Mexicans. New Mexico has the highest ratio of Hispanic residents of any state, estimated at well over 40% by the U.S. Census Bureau.

"Next time we see a grieving family, grieving parents sobbing at the memorials for their families -- as we have in El Paso -- I want to be able look at them and know that I did everything within my power to prevent it," said Cervantes, a Las Cruces-based attorney whose firm has an office in El Paso.

Democratic Senate majority leader Peter Wirth of Santa Fe described the bill as a "huge step for school safety" that responds to mass protests by student activists at the Statehouse after a deadly December 2017 school shooting at Aztec High School by a gunman who had been visited by the FBI.

Another change raised the legal standard of proof needed for a one-year order for gun removal, from probable cause to a preponderance of evidence.

A Section on 02/09/2020