New Mexico County Sheriff Investigates Whether Gun Buyback Program Violated Law

Customers shop for firearms in the McBride Guns Inc. store in Austin, Texas, on Aug. 25, 2023. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

A New Mexico sheriff is investigating a group of gun control advocates over concerns that their efforts to buy back and destroy firearms were unlawful.

San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari announced in a Dec. 17 Facebook post that his office would investigate the group New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence (NMPGV) over a recent gun buyback event. The sheriff said the buyback event may have violated a state gun control law that prohibits firearms transfers without a background check.

NMPGV initially planned a gun buyback event with the city of Farmington in the Farmington Police Department parking lot on Dec. 8. However, Farmington Mayor Rob Mayes called it off just two days prior. Despite the Dec. 8 event’s cancellation, the gun control group announced in a Dec. 16 post on the X social media platform that its activists had instead gone door-to-door on their own to collect and dismantle unwanted firearms, and displayed images of several firearms the group claimed to have collected and dismantled.

Mr. Ferrari warned that the actions of NMPGV activists may have constituted unlawful firearms sales, as they handed out gift cards in exchange for the firearms they collected.

“Reviewing the law I do not see where they are exempt from having to undergo a background check and are required to like anyone else. A sale is taking place (gift cards $100 and up), it is advertised as a purchase and called a ‘buy back,’” Mr. Ferrari wrote.

As word began to circulate that NMPGV’s actions may have involved unlawful firearm transfers, the group posted on social media insisting there had been no actual firearms transfers because NMPGV activists had simply dismantled the firearms “onsite” at each home they visited.

Mr. Ferrari said law enforcement officers in the state are exempted from the law requiring background checks, and that firearm buyback programs supervised by law enforcement agencies in the state are also “covered as exemptions” in state law. However, Mr. Ferrari noted that law enforcement agencies in the state cannot simply dismantle firearms once they are surrendered at buyback events.

“Law enforcement is required to obtain a court order for destruction or other disposition. That process takes months. If ‘New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence’ is going through law enforcement to purchase the unwanted firearms those must remain in that law enforcement agency’s custody until they obtain a destruction order,” he wrote. “Law enforcement can not immediately give someone (including a non-profit group) a firearm for destruction or other means. If that were the case, you could give your gun to law enforcement and they could give it to the San Juan County Wildlife Federation for educational purposes or anyone. Either way I look at it, the law is not being followed.”

Mr. Ferrari said images NMPGV shared of firearms they collected may show that the firearms were not properly dismantled, as defined by federal law.

“I know how many times a receiver needs to be cut to be considered destroyed,” he wrote.

NMPGV subsequently criticized Mr. Ferrari for focusing so critically on their efforts to collect and dismantle firearms.

“It is tragic to see Sherif [sic] Ferrari care more about 9 destroyed guns than the safety of his community from gun violence,” the gun control group wrote in a Dec. 20 post on X.

For now, no charges have been filed against NMPGV. In a Dec. 22 Facebook post, Mr. Ferrari announced he had reached out to the New Mexico state attorney general, the San Juan County district attorney, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms for their legal opinions on NMPGV’s recent efforts to collect and destroy firearms in San Juan County.

From NTD News