- New Mexico’s chief deputy attorney general has issued an opinion that gun buy-back programs conducted with law-enforcement agencies are legal.
- San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari had questioned the legality of the events.
- Ferrari says he still has many questions about such programs.
The leader of a New Mexico nonprofit organization that has presented dozens of gun buy-back events throughout the state says she feels vindicated by a recent legal opinion from the attorney general’s staff maintaining such programs are legal under state law, despite an assertion by San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari that they are not.
On Jan. 9, Chief Deputy Attorney General James Grayson explained in a letter to San Juan County District Attorney Rick Tedrow, copied to Ferrari, that gun buy-back events conducted by nonprofit organizations in partnership with law enforcement agencies do not violate a provision of a 2019 state law requiring that a federal instant background check be conducted prior to the sale of a firearm, except in certain circumstances.