{"id":30300,"date":"2023-12-07T18:49:28","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T01:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/farmington-city-manager-rob-mayes-cancels-gun-buyback\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:16:10","slug":"farmington-city-manager-rob-mayes-cancels-gun-buyback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/farmington-city-manager-rob-mayes-cancels-gun-buyback\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmington City Manager Rob Mayes cancels gun buyback"},"content":{"rendered":"Realtor accuses violence-prevention group of trying to \u2018disarm the general public\u2019\n

\"These
These are some of the guns collected at a New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence buyback event in Santa Fe in June. (Courtesy photo)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A gun buyback scheduled for Saturday was canceled by Farmington City Manager Rob Mayes, who said the event was questioned by the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cChief (Steve) Hebbe and I determined it was apparent the program had not received enough advance education and community collaboration prior to scheduling this event,\u201d Mayes said in a prepared statement. \u201cWe will continue to explore educational opportunities and options to assist the public with safely discarding unwanted firearms.\u201d<\/p>\n

The buyback was planned through a partnership with New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence. As part of their Guns to Garden programs, surrendered guns are turned into gardening tools by high school students.<\/p>\n

One of the people questioning the buyback was real estate agent Bryan Crawford, who brought the concept of drop boxes made for unwanted babies to the Farmington City Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cInviting a liberal anti-gun activist group into Farmington in an effort to disarm the general public in exchange for grocery gift cards was a mistake,\u201d Crawford wrote in a Facebook post. \u201cI am glad the public was heard and you guys chose to do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce our elected officials found realized who he (Hebbe) had invited on their behalf, they uninvited them,\u201d Crawford said.<\/p>\n

Farmington City Councilor Sean Sharer gave the decision a thumbs-up on Facebook, and reposted the announcement to his page, where Crawford commented, \u201cGreat job!\u201d<\/p>\n

Miranda Viscoli, co-president of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, said people should not \u201cspew misinformation\u201d about the group, when they don\u2019t understand its purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not about if you are a Democrat or a Republican, it\u2019s about getting an unwanted gun out of home,\u201d she said, adding the group is trying to prevent gun violence and is not an anti-gun group.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hand out free gun locks. What\u2019s radical about that?\u201d Viscoli said \u201cWe work with youths to end gun violence. What\u2019s radical about that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFarmington has a real problem with gun violence \u2013 some of the worst in the state,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Viscoli mentioned the May 15 mass shooting on North Dustin Avenue, in which Beau Wilson, 18, who reportedly suffered from mental illness, had access to thousands of rounds of ammunition and walked up and down the street shooting at cars, homes and people.<\/p>\n

Wilson killed three woman and injured several others, before he was shot and killed by police.<\/p>\n

Mayes\u2019 announcement to end the gun buyback also came on the eve of the six-year anniversary of the Aztec High School shooting, in which former high school student William Atkinson, who suffered from mental illness, entered the school on Dec. 7, 2017, and shot and killed Casey Marquez and Francisco \u201cPaco\u201d Fernandez Jr.<\/p>\n

Viscoli said that while some people in the community might disagree with the work her group is doing, she said, \u201cI think we can all agree that a teenager that has mental health issues shouldn\u2019t have a gun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A garden tool made at Robert F. Kennedy Charter School by students who use dismantled guns to make garden tools. The guns are dismantled and provided from New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence buyback events. (Courtesy photo)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cLaw-abiding citizens have a right to possess a gun,\u201d Viscoli said.<\/p>\n

The buyback was not about that, and New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence is \u201cnot a radical gun prevention group,\u201d Viscoli said.<\/p>\n

The group, instead, provides people with a safe way to rid themselves of an unwanted firearms. Viscoli said there are stories after stories of people who attend the gun buybacks because someone in their house has \u201csuicidal ideations\u201d and they want the gun out of the house.<\/p>\n

A woman who attended a recent gun buyback \u201cwas so grateful, because her husband was so depressed and we helped her get the gun out of the home,\u201d Viscoli said.<\/p>\n

There are stories about widows with sheds full with guns and they want to discard them.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a high suicide rate in Farmington with guns. When that gun is done being in evidence, it is mailed to the family home in an evidence box,\u201d Viscoli said. \u201cWe literally have parents showing up at our buybacks with the gun in the evidence box. Why are we saying, \u2018No\u2019 to these parents?\u201d<\/p>\n

Viscoli said these are \u201cnot anecdotal stories,\u201d they are reality, and the organization even has social workers at the buybacks to help people who might be going through emotional issues while surrendering the gun.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who made these decisions \u2013 I hope they think about denying people those opportunities to heal,\u201d she said in response to Mayes\u2019 statement to end the buyback.<\/p>\n

Crawford argued on Facebook that the people who want to give up their guns still have options.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can surrender your firearms to the police at any time and request their destruction. \u2026 The gripe is that the police chief invited an anti-gun activist group into our community. This group has lobbied for the elimination of Constitutional rights. This isn\u2019t about public education, this was a police chief pushing the same anti-gun agenda he\u2019s been pushing for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as recently as September, Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe opposed Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham\u2019s public health order that banned the public carry of weapons in Bernalillo County and how it might affect Farmington.<\/p>\n

Hebbe pointed out the governor admitted that under her proposal \u201ceither conceal carry or open carry, you acknowledge it\u2019s not going to be followed by the criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hebbe weighed in on the debate as Farmington\u2019s chief and as president of the New Mexico Police Chiefs Association. The debate led to a summit on gun crime hosted by Attorney General Raul Torrez on Sept. 26 in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

Viscoli described Hebbe as a leader on helping to prevent gun violence and had been working with the group for a few years to plan the buyback event.<\/p>\n

It was not an event sponsored by the police; instead, the department provided officers to safely check the guns to determine if they had been stolen.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur role really is just to check the weapons make sure that they\u2019re not loaded, and I think sometimes inadvertently, that still does happen, because sometimes the people turning in guns aren\u2019t really familiar with guns,\u201d Hebbe said in an earlier interview.<\/p>\n

He added police would check to see if the gun was stolen and if it was, then they would work to return it to the rightful owner.<\/p>\n

There was no cost to the city of Farmington because the gift cards being offered were paid for by New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, Viscoli said. She added that some residents had called the group with plans to trade their guns for gift cards.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were planning to get grocery cards and gas cards right before the holidays \u2026 and now they won\u2019t be getting them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Viscoli said she still plans to work on gun violence prevention in the Farmington area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t about taking away people\u2019s guns who want to keep them. This isn\u2019t about disarming citizens,\u201d Viscoli said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time there is an incident of gun violence in Farmington, we can ask ourselves could it have been prevented,\u201d she said. \u201cEvery time there is a suicide with a gun in Farmington, we can ask ourselves could that have been prevented.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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