Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham provided an update about efforts to address gun violence during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
Since the governor issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency for gun violence, the Bernalillo County Violent Crime Reduction Dashboard showed a decrease in gunshots detected. The dashboard shows statistics such as arrests, firearms seized, Metropolitan Detention Center population, gunshot detection by week and gun violence in schools.
“This is a public facing report card of how the progress is going since the public health emergency has been declared,” Senior Public Safety Advisor Ben Baker said at the press conference.
Data posted to the dashboard shows that, in September, law enforcement offices made 502 total arrests in Bernalillo County, seized 20 firearms and issued 1,370 traffic citations. The dashboard showed MDC had an 11 percent increase in average inmate population.
There were 166 gunshots detected during the week beginning Sept. 18 and 128 the following week.
In the last six months, Bernalillo County has had 6,891 gunshot detection incidents.
“The larger number of gunshots detected seems to logically follow one of the efforts that that we are undertaking as a comprehensive understanding and analysis of gunshot detection data, which is collected and used by law enforcement agencies for a variety of different tools, but more particularly to streamline and make efficient their response times and to increase the community and police officer safety,” Baker said.
Since September, there have been 32 young people across the state charged for delinquency where a firearm was involved and six guns found in Albuquerque Public Schools alone between Sept. 8 and Oct. 5, the dashboard states.
Lujan Grisham issued an executive order on Sept. 8 that banned firearms in Bernalillo County for 30 days, what Lujan Grisham called a “cooling off period.”
The shock tactic, which had a temporary restraining order put on it by a federal district court judge and then was removed from the order the day after the ruling, was a “catalyst,” Lujan Grisham said.
“But if this was the catalyst to get everyone to do more, it’s a good catalyst,” Lujan Grisham said. “Every person irrespective of whether you own a firearm, you should be safe.”
The part of the order banning firearms in public parks, playgrounds and the Roundhouse was kept in the order, though a federal judge paused the enforcement pending a hearing on Wednesday.
In the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 8 announcement, people and organizations filed or announced their intent to file legal challenges to the order, saying it violated the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.
The temporary ban on carrying firearms in Bernalillo County forced a conversation about gun violence in New Mexico, according to Lujan Grisham.
This included New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez hosting a Law Enforcement Summit on Sept. 26, about three weeks after the executive order went into effect. The Tuesday press conference included cabinet secretaries from the Departments of Human Services, Corrections, Public Safety, Environment as well as Crime Commissioner Pete Kassetas.
