Mayors petition Obama for gun control

RUIDOSO, N.M. (KRQE) - It's been a hot-button issue, especially in the wake of the Connecticut school shooting.

Now, hundreds of mayors across the country, including some in New Mexico, have petitioned the president for tighter gun control laws. 

Ruidoso's mayor has been vocal in the past on this issue, and on Wednesday he told KRQE News 13 his position hasn't changed.

Last week, following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., that left 26 people dead, most of them children, more than 750 mayors across the country addressed President Obama in a letter .
    
The letter states, "Together, we urge you to put forward an agenda that is rooted in common sense and that will make it harder for dangerous people to possess guns, and easier for police and prosecutors to crack down on them."

Ruidoso Mayor Ray Alborn was among the mayors who signed the letter.

"It's never been a big part of my life, but that doesn't mean other people can't have guns," Alborn explained. "I don't care about that.  All I'm concerned about is that we protect our employees and the public."

Alborn is no stranger to the issue. Last year he issued a controversial executive order banning guns on village property after a citizen refused to give up his gun at a council meeting.
    
More than 50 protestors responded to the order by showing up to a council meeting with their guns.

"Almost all of the mass murders in our country have occurred in areas just like you're fixing to set up, in gun-free zones," Executive Director Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America said at the meeting.

The executive order was later rescinded. But Alborn said he still wants guns banned on village property and has reached out to the state Attorney General's Office asking for a ruling on the idea.

"I just want to make sure that people are protected in performing their day to day work in the government," said Alborn.

He also noted there was misinformation passed around after his executive order. Alborn pointed to flyers claiming "if you were driving down the street and you got pulled over, that the police could take your gun, they could come into your business and take your gun, they could come into your home and take your gun" as not true at all.
Alborn said a gun supporter told him that the flyer was an intimidation tactic and that the supporter was embarrassed by it.

In the letter to the president, the mayors are pushing for criminal background checks on every buyer and a ban on high-capacity rifles and ammunition magazines. They also want to make gun trafficking a federal crime.

Alborn said he has not yet heard back from the attorney general with an answer on his wish to ban guns on village property.

The mayors from Santa Fe, Grants, Las Cruces, Santa Rosa and Tijeras also signed the letter to the president.