Heinrich Highlights New Ballistics Testing Machine in Las Cruces to Help Tackle Gun Violence & Solve Violent Crime in Southern New Mexico
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Today, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, highlighted recent funding he’s secured for law enforcement to tackle gun violence, solve crimes, and hold criminals accountable in Southern New Mexico, including a new ballistics testing machine, known as a National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) machine, for Las Cruces.
Currently, there are only four NIBIN machines in New Mexico: two in Albuquerque, one in Santa Fe, and one on loan in Las Cruces, which the Las Cruces Police Department demonstrated today. Over $1 million Heinrich secured through the Appropriations process will add four new NIBIN machines for Las Cruces, Farmington, Gallup, and Roswell.
“A permanent NIBIN machine in Las Cruces will make a real difference in helping to solve violent crime in the region, allowing law enforcement to trace firearms used in crimes and hold criminals accountable, all while saving officers valuable time and resources,” said Heinrich. “When it comes to crime, my focus is on preventing what we can and solving it when we can’t. These machines will help us do both – solving the crimes that happen before those same criminals can do more harm. I will continue to deliver investments to support and better equip our law enforcement with the tools needed to keep New Mexicans safe.”
NIBIN machines are vital to assisting law enforcement in identifying and prosecuting crimes involving firearms through ballistic intelligence.
The intelligence gathered by these NIBIN machines will go to the New Mexico Attorney General’s Crime Gun Intelligence Center, where dedicated and trained analysts will use the information to trace and network firearms used in crimes across the state. The Center will then be able to feed that information back to law enforcement agencies to improve identification of suspects and support successful prosecutions. In addition to securing funding for the NIBIN machines, Heinrich secured language in the 2024 Appropriations Bill directing the expanded use of NIBIN for state and local agencies in the Southwest Border region.
Heinrich-secured funding for the Las Cruces Police Department
Heinrich secured $194,000 in the 2024 Appropriations Bills for the Las Cruces Police Department to purchase equipment to safely analyze fentanyl and other illicit narcotics and create a community engagement effort to educate youth on the dangers of illicit drugs.
In the 2o23 Appropriations Bills, Heinrich secured $1,750,000 for the Las Cruces Police Department’s Regional Critical Response Team to purchase emergency response equipment to keep New Mexicans safe. The legislation also included $450,000 Heinrich secured for the Las Cruces Police Department to purchase camera trailers, drones, automatic license plate readers, and auto-activated car and body cameras to improve public safety and accountability.
For a list of Heinrich’s actions to support law enforcement and first responders across New Mexico, click here.
Heinrich's longtime leadership to tackle gun violence:
A gun owner and father, Heinrich has long worked to advance and pass bipartisan policies that save lives, protect public safety, and reduce gun violence.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) was the first significant federal gun safety legislation to become law in 30 years. During the bill negotiations, Heinrich specifically worked with U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) to increase criminal penalties for straw purchases and stop illegal gun trafficking out of our country.
Heinrich-led gun trafficking and straw purchase provisions:
Heinrich-led provisions in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act increased criminal penalties for straw purchasers and made it a crime, for the first time ever, to traffic firearms out of the United States. Straw purchasers are people who buy guns for those who cannot buy them directly themselves due to their age, felony criminal convictions, or other limitations. By increasing penalties for straw purchasing, Heinrich’s provision is helping to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and those who would use them against our communities. By making it illegal to traffic firearms out of the country, Heinrich’s provision gave law enforcement the tools needed to prosecute and disrupt the flow of firearms to Mexico and the Northern Triangle, fueling the violence that has driven so many to flee their home countries.
To date, the Department of Justice has charged more than 600 defendants using BSCA’s gun trafficking and straw purchasing laws, removing hundreds of firearms off the streets in the process. These cases are significant, often preventing and prosecuting highly dangerous activity, such as crimes linked to organized trafficking rings and transnational criminal organizations.
For example, in March 2024, the Justice Department charged several defendants with trafficking and straw purchasing over 100 firearms, including many military-grade weapons, that were allegedly intended to be smuggled to a Mexican drug cartel. In April, a defendant was sentenced to 276 months in prison for firearms trafficking and straw purchasing, as well as distribution of fentanyl, where the evidence showed that two of the trafficked firearms had been used in gang-related shootings. Late last year, a defendant was sentenced to two years in prison for running an illegal gun trafficking enterprise, repeatedly taking money to lie on firearm purchase forms and obtain weapons for convicted felons.
In New Mexico, the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico has charged 11 defendants with BSCA violations.
In June, Heinrich brought his Banning Unlawful Machinegun Parts (BUMP) Act, bipartisan legislation to ban bump stocks, to the Senate floor through a unanimous consent (UC) request. The effort directly followed a recent Supreme Court ruling to overturn a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, devices designed to indiscriminately kill the highest number of people in the shortest amount of time. U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), objected to Heinrich’s UC request, blocking passage of the legislation. Since the Supreme Court ruling, over 20 senators have signed onto Heinrich’s BUMP Act, bringing support up to over a quarter of the Senate.
Heinrich, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), and former Senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) initially introduced the BUMP Act in the 115th Congress, following the October 1, 2017, mass shooting in which a bump stock was used to fire more than 1,000 bullets into a crowd in just 10 minutes, killing 60 people. U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) also cosponsored that legislation.
Last November, Heinrich introduced the Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearms Exclusion (GOSAFE) Act, legislation to protect communities from gun violence, while safeguarding Americans’ constitutional right to own a firearm for legitimate self-defense, hunting, and sporting purposes. In addition to regulating the sale, transfer, and manufacture of gas-operated semi-automatic weapons, the GOSAFE Act would prevent unlawful modifications of permissible firearms, including bump stocks. Earlier this summer, Heinrich announced that his GOSAFE Act has been introduced in the House by U.S. Representative Lucy McBath (D-Ga.).
In July 2023, Heinrich cosponsored the bicameral Ghost Guns and Untraceable Firearms Act, led by Blumenthal, to require online and other sellers of gun-making kits to comply with federal firearm safety regulations.
In 2017, Heinrich cosponsored the bipartisan Fix NICS Act, which now requires federal and state authorities to produce background check implementation plans and holds federal agencies accountable for reporting relevant criminal records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). He also led the successful call to repeal the Dickey Amendment, which had previously prevented the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from funding research on gun violence and its effects on public health.
###
