Rep. Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe) and Students Demand action member Bo Wilson at a rally in the New Mexico Legislature on Feb. 6, 2025. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM)
Two New Mexico lawmakers joined Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action for a rally at the Roundhouse in support of gun safety legislation in the Rotunda on Thursday.
“I’m sad that we have to keep up this fight to let people know what we are trying to survive for,” state Rep. Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe) said. “But I am glad because you are survivors. I am glad because you are fighters, and I am glad that I know you, because you are here to fight with us.”
Romero is co-sponsoring Senate Bill 279, which would ban gas-operated semi-automatic firearms, magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, and devices that convert semi-automatic guns into fully automatic ones. The bill is currently in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“It is my hope that this is the last time that we have to convene to talk about assault weapons in our communities,” she said.
Sen. Debbie O’Malley (D-Albuquerque) shared her experience as one of four elected officials whom failed Republican House of Representatives candidate Solomon Peña allegedly targeted in a scheme to shoot Democratic officials.
Peña faces more than a dozen federal charges in a trial scheduled to begin next month.
O’Malley said Thursday that after Peña lost the election, he “decided that to get somehow, even, he shot at our homes.” Fortunately, she noted, “I was not hurt, and I was very grateful that my grandchildren were not spending the night with my husband and I. But unfortunately, other elected officials’ homes were shot at. The bullets went right through their homes.”
Bo Wilson, a freshman at the University of New Mexico and a member of the New Mexico chapter of Students Demand Action, said young people like him may live in fear of getting shot at school or in public, “but we hold the power to change this reality.”
Firearms kill more children and adolescents in the United States than any other cause, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
“Thoughts and prayers were never enough,” Wilson said. “We must ban assault weapons.”
O’Malley thanked the parents and students for their courage and commitment.
“You have not given up, and please know that I will not either,” O’Malley said.
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