Morning Word: Nation Grieves Another Mass Shooting

This weekend’s carnage, the worst in the nation’s history, is the 1,001st mass shooting since the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy. Shooters, like Omar Mateen, have killed at least 1,141 people and wounded 3,943 more.

Gov. Susana Martinez and other New Mexico leaders, including members of the federal delegation, were quick to call the shootings outrageous. Now, we’re left to wonder if they’ll unite to consider meaningful gun law reforms, as mass shootings seem to become the norm. 

We read this weekend that there are six gun dealers for every one Starbucks coffee shop, and legal reforms were definitely an issue on the minds of people who attended a vigil at Morningside Park in Albuquerque last night. 

As Broadway’s biggest stars walked the red carpet before the Tony Awards, where Hamilton picked up 11 trophies, including one for Best New Musical, the stars of theater dedicated their show to the victims in Florida. 

While the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando garnered most of the new coverage yesterday, New Mexico law enforcement agencies are searching for Juan David Villegas-Hernandez. The Roswell man is accused of fatally shooting his wife and four daughters. 

Sanders' Transformative Path
The New York Times reports, “Senator Bernie Sanders said on Sunday that he would 'take our campaign for transforming the Democratic Party into the convention,’ refusing to concede the presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton though not explicitly saying he would challenge her for it.”

Mrs. Clinton earned enough delegates to clinch the nomination last week, but Mr. Sanders has declined to end his campaign. He has contended that he could persuade enough superdelegates, the party leaders who have overwhelmingly backed Mrs. Clinton, to switch their support to him by arguing that he would be the stronger candidate against Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Public Comment Restriction? 
The city of Santa Fe Finance Committee meeting this evening could get interesting. The New Mexican reports that some folks are expressing concerns “about a resolution being considered by the city Finance Committee Monday that would give councilors the right to remove outspoken Santa Feans from council meetings.”

Analyst Critiques School Funding Formula
The state’s school funding formula might be inequitable and require retooling, according to a policy analyst who has the ear of state legislators.

Oh SNAP
In a testy congressional hearing last week in Washington DC, a top official with the US Department of Agriculture said, “New Mexico is probably the most fouled up SNAP system in the United States right now — and has been, unfortunately, I think, for years.” Justin Horwath took a long look at history of the program here and a decades old lawsuit challenging the application process.

Opiates Plentiful in New Mexico
On Sunday, Albuquerque Journal investigative reporter Mike Gallagher took a long look at the opioid epidemic in New Mexico ahead of the paper’s public forum on the issue.

Heroin is cheaper, more powerful and more plentiful than ever in New Mexico. And despite new regulations that are credited with some improvements and a lower death toll, the state is awash in prescription painkillers.

State epidemiologist Dr. Michael Landen says that 1.75 million prescriptions for opioids of different types were written for patients in New Mexico.

“That’s almost one prescription for every person in the state,” Landen said.

Richardson Shares Ideas to Protect Gorillas
In the wake of the shooting of Harambe, the 17-year-old silverback gorilla in the Cincinnati Zoo, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has proposed six ways to protect the animals in the wild, including an idea to expand existing protected areas and to create national parks near gorilla and chimpanzee colonies. 

Local Bucket List Ideas
If you’re looking for things to do in Santa Fe this summer, you’ll want to check out Pat Hodapp’s cool new book, which features 100 cool things to put on your bucket list.