Representative Cates’s bill becomes state law

The governor signed a six-bill crime package from the House of Representatives and three behavioral health bills from the Senate. This group of bills provides the tools for law-enforcement and our district attorney‘s office to address our growing juvenile crime problem, as well as building the infrastructure of behavioral health and addiction services so we can prevent the same issues.

Representative Cates’s HB 38 was rolled into the crime package. This bill created a state law making gun conversion “block switches” illegal. These gun conversions have been a federal crime for decades. Unfortunately, our state has such an epidemic of these conversions, turning semiautomatic weapons into automatic weapons, that federal authorities don’t always have the resources to charge all violators. Law-enforcement and DA officials asked Representative Cates to make “block switches” illegal in New Mexico state law so that when federal authorities cannot charge violators, our state can.