From the Santa Fe New Mexican:
A bill to allow New Mexicans to carry concealed handguns has cleared its final committee and now heads to the House floor for a vote, possibly as soon as today.
The House Appropriations and Finance Committee on Wednesday amended the bill to raise the age for obtaining a gun permit from 21 to 25. The committee then passed the bills along to the floor by an 11-to-6 vote.
Sen. Shannon Robinson, D-Albuquerque, sponsor of the bill, was unhappy with the amendment.
"You've got to be 25 years old?" Robinson said after the committee vote. "Most of the soldiers that are fighting right now in Iraq are between 18 to 25, and you can't trust them with a gun here? I think that's a mistake."
But opponents welcomed the amendment.
Bill Jordan, spokesman for New Mexico Voices For Children, said after the vote that raising the age for permits will help keep guns out of the hands of young people who, at age 21, become old enough to buy alcohol.
"The Legislature has spent an inordinate amount of time talking about the deadly combination of alcohol and cars and refuse to discuss the deadly combination of alcohol and guns," Jordan said. "We think there should be a discussion of that."
The Senate has already passed the handgun bill, but the going has been slower on the House side. Rep. John Heaton, D-Carlsbad, is carrying the bill in the House.
In addition to raising the age for a permit, House committees have tacked on amendments reducing the length of the permits from four years to two years. Another amendment would require the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, which will administer the permit system, to issue permits within 30 days from the time a permit application is complete.
With only a few days left before the session expires this Saturday, Robinson said there won't be time to iron out differences between his original bill and the amended bill now headed to the House Floor. He said the Senate would have no choice but to concur in the version approved by the House.
