WEBVTT - Assassination Attempts on Elected Democrats in New Mexico 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:08.080 Welcome to it could happen here a show. I've had 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:11.680 a bunch of ship actually, but but our our core 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:17.120 is collapse and UH, political violence in the United States. 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:19.760 That's that's where we got our bones. And today we're 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:23.520 getting back to basics. We're we're going into the roots. UM. 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.000 Those of you who live in New Mexico are probably 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:31.920 broadly familiar with the kind of basics of this story. UM. 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:33.960 Many of you probably will have heard aspects of this. 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:37.120 But there have been a series of shootings that took 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:40.440 place in December of last year in January of this year, 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.360 UM at the homes of to state legislators and two 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:49.440 county commissioners. No one was injured, thankfully, UM. But this 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:51.720 was obviously something that was scaring the hell out of 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:54.520 a lot of people, UM, liberals and people on the 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:58.640 left in New Mexico over the last several weeks because 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:02.600 they were clearly politically motivated. UM. New Mexico has had 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:05.520 shootings at protests and it's its share of the political 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.080 violence that has swept a large chunk of the country. 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:10.880 And this seemed like a real scary years of lead 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.679 style escalation. UM. Very recently within the last couple of 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.440 days of US recording this, it was announced that the 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.760 police had brought in the guy who was responsible for 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:24.280 organizing this. Um. He did not carry out the shootings himself. 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:28.200 His name is Solomon Penia UM and he was a 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:35.920 former Republican candidate for local office who hired foreman Um 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:40.119 in order to shoot at the homes of elected Democrats. Um. 0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:42.479 Those are the basics of it. Uh. The arrest Warren 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:45.800 affidavit says that Penia intended to cause serious harm or 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:49.040 cause death to the occupants inside their homes, which seems 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:53.880 pretty credible based on what we know objectively about what happened. Um. 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:57.680 It's also worth noting that Penia had donated repeatedly in 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:00.080 the past to Lyndon LaRouche, which I'm sure we'll it 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:02.000 into a little bit later. But I want to introduce 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:04.080 my guest for this episode who knows the story much 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:08.120 better than I do, a local, uh New Mexico based activist, 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:11.760 Lucas Herndon. Lucas, how are you doing today, buddy? I'm 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:15.040 doing good man. Glad to be back, sort of really 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:17.000 glad to have you back. You've been on the show before. 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:19.079 I'm just gonna kind of let you take it from 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:21.320 here now that I've sort of laid out the bones 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:26.000 of it. Yeah, thanks, And just a couple of clarifying points, um, 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:31.760 which only because things have been moving very quickly today. Um, 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.120 this is the day after he was arrested. There is 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:38.480 actually now evidence put out from the A p D 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:44.720 that um Penya himself uh was in the car and 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:49.080 attempted to fire at least one of the targets. Apparently 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:51.960 he had an A R fifteen that quote unquote jammed. 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.880 It didn't stop that shooting from occurring. His accomplice, who 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:59.480 is unnamed at this time, at least to our knowledge, UH, 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:02.240 did fire a glock out of the car during that 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:04.280 That I mean, so that there was still a shooting 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:06.880 that happened. Yes, but it is worth noting that he 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:09.560 was not just the mastermind, but also an active participant, 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:12.239 at least according to what we know today. Yeah, it 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:13.720 looks like the weapon that was used was a tan 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:16.720 and black block with a drum magazine. UM or at 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:20.560 least the drum was seized at the thing doesn't really matter. Um. 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:24.360 But yeah, So I'm interested kind of first in if 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:26.680 you want to walk us through how you became aware 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.200 that these shootings had happened, and how you would kind 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:32.880 of characterize the impact it had on on the community 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.560 around you, because this obviously is is intensely frightening and 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:38.600 is the kind of thing most of us have been 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.040 paying attention, have been worried about happening for for quite 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:46.000 a while, right exactly that. Yeah, so, UM, you know, 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:49.240 in in the in the political nonprofit world, which which 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.920 I work in professionally, UM, it's not uncommon for the 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:56.560 whole movement sort of takes the last part of December 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:00.200 off for the holidays. UM. So unfortunately, there was sort 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.240 of not a lot of eyes on stuff in the 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.200 latter part of December. But as soon as we got 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:10.440 back to work on the third of January, a series 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:14.800 of events happened where there was a realization that there 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:20.680 were shootings that happened at different elected officials houses. Right, 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:24.520 and UM, it turns out or it looks like that 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:28.720 the cops were just starting to put it together themselves. 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:33.039 But it came from, um, the fact that the first 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:37.599 two targets were at the time ceded county commissioners in 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:42.880 berno Leo County. UM. Just for extra added confusion, UM, 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:46.720 one of those targets was she finished her term at 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:48.600 the end of the year, so she's now she's not 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:53.320 technically sitting as a commissioner anymore, just just for clarity UM. 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:56.440 But then over the course of of you know, those 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:58.840 weeks that we were all out, there were also then 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:04.160 shootings at UM one of the state senators homes, and 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:08.359 then in January there was also shootings at the campaign 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:12.560 office of who the gentleman who is now our state 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:15.839 attorney general. Within our sort of movement of people that 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:18.119 work on you know, political things, we were all gearing 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:22.040 up for the session are in New Mexico. Our legislative 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:25.720 session kicks off a sixty day term actually started today 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:30.320 on January, and it became clear to all of us 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:33.400 that this was happening, and we started, you know, talking 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.919 amongst ourselves, and we really we did find out that 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:39.240 at that point the cops had started piecing it together. 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:43.520 They were piecing together pieces of information. It turns out 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:48.039 that after the shooting on the third, UM the only 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:53.480 other named accomplice so far, this guy, Jose Trahio, was 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.920 arrested forty minutes after the shooting, UM a p D 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:03.800 because of ongoing issues with UM crime in the in 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:08.320 the city of Albuquerque has like a quick response like 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:12.359 system set up that like tracks gunfire and yeah, so 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:15.240 they were they were able to track this guy down. Um. 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:19.880 He was driving a car that was registered to Penya 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:24.200 Um and uh, there was other connections obviously that the 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:27.480 you know, cops put things together and then yeah, and 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:31.520 they executed the search warrant yesterday. There was a swat situation. 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:35.640 It sounds like it was um preventative more than anything, 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:39.159 but it But but some of the stories that have 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:42.200 come out is that he was reluctant to leave at first, 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:46.400 but there wasn't actually any overt threats of violence. But 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:48.280 you know, the cops did respond was swat when they 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:51.520 arrested him. Yeah, I mean, given the fact that he 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:55.280 had carried out a series of shootings. Uh, not surprised 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:59.039 to hear that. Now, I'm I'm kind of curious. Was 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:02.840 there a commune ay response prior to sort of Pinia 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:08.120 being exposed and arrested. Was their community response kind of 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.080 reacting to the fact that there were was an escalating 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:16.000 series of shootings targeting local elected leaders. Yeah. So the 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:19.040 company I worked for, Progress Now New Mexico, we put 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:23.720 out a series of tweets. UM. Basically as soon as 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:27.920 we had started putting two and two together. UM, you know, 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:33.720 we we were careful to say that this appears politically motivated. 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:36.080 We don't have hard evidence, but it's hard to not 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:40.280 put those two things together. We at progress now and 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:44.000 and me specifically, having worked here for a very long time, UM, 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:47.160 I have been tracking political violence here in the state, 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:51.280 UM for for a while, and and i've i've i've 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:53.160 been part of it in the sense that I was 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:57.560 threatened and docked in as were some of my other colleagues, 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:00.400 and so you know, these things hit close to home, 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:02.640 right and on the and on the one hand, it's 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:06.880 it's tough to see these things as anything but political 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:10.280 violence for for those of us like you, Robert, that 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:12.360 like we see it all the time because we're paying 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:16.400 attention to it. On the other hand, there is unfortunately 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:18.960 a lot of gun violence in Albuquerque, and you know, 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:21.320 so there were there were some pushback. People thought, oh, 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:22.840 I know, this is just you know, there's just that 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:25.640 much gun violence quote unquote, but that's you know, that 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:29.160 was a silly premise. Honestly, this was very clearly politically motivated. 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.320 And now that we have a person to attach this to, 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:36.079 and we can look at his social media history and 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:39.040 and you know, stuff we've found in telegram, stuff on 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:42.719 his Twitter. It's so clear. I mean he we just 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:46.040 actually even today, right before we got on here, we 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:49.920 just published another telegram piece that we found on our 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:53.760 Twitter that he threatened the Secretary of State after he 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.199 lost his election, UM telling saying that he she should 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:00.280 quote unquote hang until she's dead. So yeah, I mean, 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.720 he's this has been an ongoing part of his UM 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:06.719 ideology for a while. You know, he has a lot 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:12.160 of pro maga posts UM, a lot of big lie 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:16.560 you know, teainted election, you know, uh rhetoric all over 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:20.560 his social media such as it exists anyway, Now, have 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.160 this altered it all um or had an impact on 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:25.600 your thinking of UM. You know, when when you have 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.000 attacks or a series of attacks like this, as you said, 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.280 it's impossible to say prior to kind of knowing who 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.280 did it, that like this is certainly politically motivated, But 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:37.360 at a certain point it becomes kind of reasonable and 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:40.199 and safe to make that assumption. And I think also 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:44.400 necessary when you're trying to two protect a community and 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.439 get people prepared for the likelihood that they're going to 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:51.360 encounter of violence. UM. We've also had those cases where 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.480 like it, it is impossible to know. You know, we 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:56.560 had a series of attacks on power plants last year. 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:58.120 We still don't know who did the ones in North 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:01.160 Carolina or who did the one it's in Portland. But 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:03.480 it turned out that the folks who did that Christmas 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:09.360 Day attack UM on power substation in um Washington State 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:14.720 were um uh just robbing a place right effectively non political. 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:17.559 So it is kind of impossible to get Has this 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:21.000 altered it all your kind of feelings on when and 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:25.080 at what sort of point do we start raising the alarm? Yeah, 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:27.680 you know, I mean I think that progress now you know, 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:31.240 my my, my organization that I work with, we as 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:33.800 soon as we heard something was afoot, we put out 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:35.920 the word for us. It was for us it was 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:38.000 a matter of safety, as as as people who have 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:41.240 lived through it ourselves. UM, this was a time that 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:43.600 the community needed to be aware of these things and 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:47.360 be thinking about it. Um and and to be honest 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:49.800 at you know, our our group discussion about it was 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:51.959 it was better to be safe than sorry. If if 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:55.920 somehow this wasn't political, or if it was maybe personalized 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:59.920 or something like that um at you know, at the 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:04.800 legislators and lawmakers, rather than it being overtly just political ideology. 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:07.840 You know, that would be we could walk it back. 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.200 But again it was for us we made the decision 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:13.360 that no, this information needs to be out there. Um. 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:15.760 We have, especially as we were gearing up for the session, 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:19.520 there was just there's too much on the line. Um. 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:22.040 You know, up until a couple of years ago, at 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:24.959 our state legislature, which we call the Roundhouse because it's 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:28.760 a big round building. Um. Up at the Roundhouse, you 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.960 could carry firearms into the building. Um. It was just 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:34.400 a sort of a remnant of New Mexico's sort of 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:38.440 wild West days, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. But uh, but 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:41.400 with the with the rise of with the rise of 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:46.520 far right related violence, and you actually did have armed 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:52.520 insurrection minded people showing up um in and around January six, um. 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:56.920 But even before that, really during during lead up with 0:11:56.960 --> 0:11:58.920 a lot of the MAGA rallies, the Trump trains and 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:02.960 all that, Uh, the legislature passed their own you know 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.680 rules saying you couldn't bring guns into the into the legislature, 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.600 and that was upped even further this year by the 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:15.280 installation of metal detectors. So, but that's new. But that 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:18.960 was directly related to this, this this looming threat over 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:22.800 over lawmakers in the state. Um, they didn't know if 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:24.800 they were going to have anybody in custody before things 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:28.480 started started today, and so the legislature made that decision 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.040 for themselves that they were going to institute that policy 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:34.480 and have metal detectors on the way in. Yeah, I 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:37.760 mean that that that that makes sense and that I 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:40.560 as I understand it that it's still the law in 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:42.680 the state of Texas actually that you can be armed 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:46.520 inside the Capitol building. I certainly had been during protests 0:12:46.600 --> 0:13:02.320 years ago. It's interesting the watching kind of the simultaneous 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:07.880 adaptation by the law enforcement, by kind of elected and 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:12.200 sort of standard centrist Democrats and by the left in 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:17.400 different ways to this escalation in in political violence, and 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.480 kind of the acceptability on the right of using the 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.400 threat or the practice of violence to try to push 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:27.480 um for political ideology. UM. Because everyone is kind of 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:31.120 adapting in real time to it. UM. I'm wondering, how 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:33.520 are you kind of looking at this from the left, 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:36.040 How are you how are you feeling about the way 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:41.120 in which the actual state has responded so far. Yeah, 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:45.360 it's complicated. UM. So the tradition in New Mexico is 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:48.000 on the opening day of the legislature the governor gives 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:51.680 the state of the state address. UM. And I covered 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:55.000 that earlier today. One of her key points and she 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:59.160 and she tied it to this very issue, was she 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:01.840 is pushing as a priority bill this year a quote 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:06.719 unquote assault weapons ban. Uh. There is also another legislator 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.360 who is pushing, um a what we would call a 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:13.160 standard capacity but what they call a high capacity magazine ban. 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:16.000 And you know, and then there's some other ones that 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:20.360 are maybe a little bit more UM reasonable, like safe 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.360 storage um, which is something that I can get behind, 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:26.200 you know. And I think there's a couple of things 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:28.400 here to consider and and you know, and it gets 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:32.200 complicated because people on the right have dominated the conversation 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:36.160 about guns and gun control for so long that it's 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:39.960 hard to have UM, well intentioned conversations from the left, 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:45.960 I find UM And and yeah, yeah, so, you know, 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:49.560 speaking personally as a gun owner and as somebody who 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:53.480 has um made the decision of my life to be 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:58.000 you know, armed and ready and have you know, body armor. 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:00.480 And I you know, I don't just shoot guns. I 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:04.520 train with guns. I train other people. I have a 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:06.800 group of people that I work with and trust that 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.440 if things ever got real bad, I would, you know, 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:13.520 we would call each other. Um. Being that guy, I 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:16.560 obviously have very strong feelings about being told by the 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:18.680 state that I don't have a right to defend myself 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.040 with the same types of weapons that I know the 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:24.240 other side has. Right, so I think the answer you know, Sorry, 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:25.440 that was a little bit of a roundabout, but the 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:31.640 point is that, um, the person who perpetrated this, um 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:36.520 Mr Penya. It's unclear, but he is a felon. And 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:41.880 um there is some hay being made about um how 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:46.200 he and others may have possessed guns. And you know, 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:49.760 the reality we know is that it is not hard 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:54.000 or difficult. Um two try to get guns one way 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:57.920 or the other and so and and now you can 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:00.120 just draw across the border to Texas for one thing, 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:03.400 I mean, or Arizona. Yeah, yeah, or Arizona. This guy 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.480 was already what was in fact restricted from being able 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:10.120 to own any kind of firearm, right, right, And and 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:15.880 so it is hard to be somebody who works in 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:18.680 the political left, and I work on a number of 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:21.040 policy issues. My my day to day work focus is 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:23.920 more on energy issues. UM. But but you know, but 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:25.960 I have been doing this work long enough that I 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:29.600 step in whenever there's stuff like this happening and cover 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:34.040 it for for my work. But it's yeah, it's UM, 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:36.360 it's gonna be interesting to see. You know. I don't 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:40.160 know if there's the political will in the state New Mexico. UM, 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:47.160 even you know, moderate Democrats are our hunters are recreational shooters, UM. 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:50.160 And I think that there's you know, there is some 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:54.160 strong feelings about gun violence. There was a very tragic 0:16:54.880 --> 0:17:00.880 death UM involving children last year during our legislative session, UM, 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:04.520 where where a middle schooler I believe maybe a high 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:07.560 school or a kid either way, UM, took a pistol 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.480 from his parents, you know, sock drawer basically and shot 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:14.119 a kid. And you know, so again, safe storage is 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.200 one of those things that I think most people generally 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.040 can get behind, especially if we do something really good 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:23.120 like subsidized safe storage, so that if you know, if 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:25.919 you're a person who is of lesser means but you 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:27.840 still want to protect yourself with a firearm, you can 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:31.159 figure out how to get a safe or something like that. Anyway, 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.920 that's so there there are things that we can do. UM. 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:37.879 I think we know that outright bands one don't work 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:41.600 and are hard to pass, and things like magazine capacity things, 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:46.120 the enforcement level becomes difficult, and UM a good example 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:48.199 of that is in New Mexico, we did pass a 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:51.159 red flag law a number of years ago. And uh, 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:53.200 you know, I've heard, I know you've talked about red 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.000 flag laws in the past, and you know, and we 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:58.040 had what a lot of states have had, which is 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:02.160 that a number of sheriffs in conservative counties just very 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:04.719 publicly said out loud that they weren't going to enforce it. 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:08.719 And sure enough, you know, last year during the summer, 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:11.200 when we hit the two year mark of the lab 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:14.119 beying into effect, it had been used less than a 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:19.399 dozen times um statewide. And so yeah, I mean, and 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:21.280 one of the one of the things that's of obvious 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:23.600 concern is if you have a lot of people living 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:27.560 in these conservative areas where the sheriffs aren't enforcing the laws, um, 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:30.520 they effectively have the ability to take the firearms they 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:34.280 can acquire there to the areas that have maybe more 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:37.399 restrictive gun control where there are elected Democrats and then 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:41.200 shoot up their houses. Um, yeah, I think kind of 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:44.760 outside of that, I'm wondering. So, and obviously we're still 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:46.560 looking at the fall out of this. There's still quite 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:48.040 a bit we don't know. I don't think there's a 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.480 lot of context on how Penya found these men that 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:54.960 he hired. Um, although I am interested in that. I 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:58.200 think it'll be it'll be worth learning. Is there kind 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:00.760 of a lessons learned that that you're going through with 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:03.159 us here? Has this altered it all kind of going forward? 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:05.880 How you think you might respond or your community might 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.480 respond the next time something like this occurs. Oh yeah, 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:11.240 I mean I think there's a couple. I mean, actually, 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:13.119 one of the things you just said is that we 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:16.920 don't necessarily know how we found these guys. And and 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:19.280 that's true because we still don't know the names of 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:22.480 some of them. But the one, the one man we 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:25.840 do know, UM was one of was a was a 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.240 person who donated money to him while while he was 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:30.920 running because because again remember this this is this was 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:32.919 a man who was running for office last year and 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:37.359 lost three to one. Um And and yeah, and so 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:40.280 this this one accomplice whose name we have Jose Triho 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.680 donated to him, and um, they're very you know, they're 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:48.840 they're clearly, um, they clearly know each other and have 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:51.480 some sort of a connection there. But I think what's 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:55.320 worth noting is that going down that path. Right, So 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:59.840 when I looked up that guy, I found the political 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.200 a nation from last year. And while I was there 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:04.320 looking at political donations, I just happened to look at 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:07.439 all the other names, which is how I found the 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:09.840 other uh you know the name of the other man 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:15.480 who has his connection to him, um Fletcher and Michael Fletcher. Right, 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:21.560 And that guy two years ago, during the you know protests, 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:26.440 drove a car through a crowd of protesters, and thanks 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:30.679 to some amazing um, you know, anti fascist organizers here 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:33.040 in New Mexico, they were able to identify them, even 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:35.600 though the cops never did anything about it. And so 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:39.560 I think that if if there's gonna be lessons learned here, 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:43.000 it's that these people have been showing their true colors 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:47.880 for a long time. And um there's if if if 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:51.400 we're going to have police in this world we live 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.159 in and we're going to ask them to quote unquote 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:57.200 keep us safe, Uh, then they have to do their job, 0:20:57.320 --> 0:21:00.199 and they have to follow up with with things like know, 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:03.240 somebody driving through a crowd of people. The video is 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:05.919 on our Twitter thread. It's very scary. I mean, I 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:07.439 know people have seen it all over the country. It 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:10.399 wasn't just unique in New Mexico. But um, anyway, that 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:14.600 guy was Penya's third highest donor and he's a young man. 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:18.359 His his listed profession is security guard and um and 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:20.640 the other guy, jose A Trihio, is listed as a cashier. 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:23.160 So there's a lot of questions about how how did 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:27.520 these young men have so much money it with jobs 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:29.720 that are you know, you don't necessarily have a lot 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:31.760 of money lying around if you're a cashier a security 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:35.000 guard at least at least not to donate to political candidates. 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:38.240 Back when I had jobs like that, I didn't anyway, Um, 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:41.080 and especially then also for all the guns they have, right, Like, 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:43.600 there's pictures of these guys with a table full of 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:47.320 glocks and um, you know and mag's and that's that 0:21:47.400 --> 0:21:51.560 stuff is not cheap, so I don't there's there's there 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:55.960 is a these people were known to law enforcement one 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:58.000 way or the other, because again Penya was a felon 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:01.880 and um, I want to be clear he was able 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:05.280 to run in New Mexico because in Mexico we believe 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:07.840 felons deserve a second chance for things like running for office. 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:09.760 In fact, it would be great someday to have somebody 0:22:09.800 --> 0:22:13.560 who's maybe got that life experience to become a legislator. Obviously, 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:18.280 there are circumstances like maybe this one that proved that 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:23.560 people haven't you know, turned around from whatever life they 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:26.040 were leading beforehand. But we're also but we're also not 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:30.000 here excluding people from being Um, being a felon does 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:31.720 not make you a bad person, That's what I'm really 0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:35.199 trying to say here. But a felon who has a 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:38.280 history like this and then has clearly demonstrated a will 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:41.720 towards violence and hangs out with violent people, UM, maybe 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:43.840 there should be some things done to keep an eye 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:57.200 on those people. This is one of those situations that 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:01.399 there's a number of difference to lucitions too or I 0:23:01.400 --> 0:23:04.480 think things that will will lead to solutions. But it's 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:09.119 also it's much more muddled than people would like it 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:12.600 to be. Um. I think I tend to think that 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:17.280 from the perspective of like people who are activists, who 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:19.680 are members of the community. One of the better things 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:23.360 that we can do is keep an eye, as y'all do, 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:26.880