New Mexico County Sheriff Investigates Whether Gun Buyback Program Violated Law

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....