07/01/2001
By Ivan Chavez

ALBUQUERQUE – Standing with a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver on her hip, Heather Hoskins recounts the morning she says she was almost accosted outside her apartment.

It was 3 a.m. when she was driving into her complex and noticed a man staring suspiciously at her car. The man followed her vehicle and when she stepped out, he was walking straight at her.

"I put a hand on my firearm and just started looking at him," Ms. Hoskins, 28, said. "I gave him the chance to just walk away, and he did."

Ms. Hoskins, marketing coordinator for Calibers Indoor Shooting Range in Albuquerque, is one of many New Mexicans who feel the time has come for a law allowing them to carry concealed weapons.

That law, enacted earlier this year, takes effect Sunday. It allows people to apply for a permit to carry a concealed, loaded handgun, much as a Texas law that took effect in 1995 does.

The New Mexico Department of Public Safety starts accepting permit applications Monday and will start issuing permits in January. The department has been charged with creating the rules for administering the law.

To qualify for a permit, a person must be at least 21, have no felony or misdemeanor convictions for drunken driving or any violent crime, not be addicted to drugs or alcohol. They also cannot have been judged as mentally incompetent. Applicants must also take a DPS-approved firearms training course.

Cities throughout New Mexico are considering using a provision in the law that gives cities the option of imposing a local ban on carrying the weapons.

"As a gun owner I don't think that concealed weapons are good for our community, good for our children," said Albuquerque Mayor Jim Baca. "We send the wrong message."

Mr. Baca asked the City Council in May to ban carrying concealed weapons in the city. A vote is scheduled for August.

Santa Fe City council member Jimmie Martinez also is pushing to opt out of the new law.

"Concealed weapons are dangerous," Mr. Martinez said. "It's dangerous to law enforcement, and it's dangerous to the community."

"I think we're going to find out that people are against concealed weapons," he said.

Critics counter that having concealed weapons in New Mexico is already legal.

"I think most people are misled to begin with because you can already carry concealed [weapons] in your vehicle," Frederic Brown, 61, said. The retired physician spent the morning firing his .44-caliber Remington Magnum and .357-caliber Magnum.

And New Mexico law allows people to openly carry guns, except in some places such as bars.

"Whether or not people are carrying concealed, criminals are going to think twice. That's the deterrent in this whole thing," Mr. Brown said. "I think it sends a strong message to the criminal element that they don't know what they're dealing with."

Source: DallasNews.com