“How fair is it to a family to be driving down the road and have juveniles hanging out the windows, shooting off automatic weapons? That’s not fair,” said Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman.Bregman has been leading the charge to change the New Mexico Children’s Code, so penalties are tougher on juvenile offenders.One way he wants to fight is to go after the guns.”Kids see guns as trophies,” Bregman said. “They wanna take a picture of themselves with a gun and then post it on social media and think they’re gonna get very popular that way by getting a few likes. Then they take it to the next level.”Two years ago, Bregman refused to reach plea agreements with juvenile offenders unless they told him where they got the guns.”We know that people are willing to sell juveniles’ guns,” he said. “We know it’s a crime that should be taken far more serious under our laws here in New Mexico.”Bregman found that of 127 plea agreements that involved juveniles with guns, 35% said they got the weapon from friends or a family member. Twenty-one percent said they got the gun through a social media app called Telegram.It’s a problem that frustrates law enforcement.”It’s not monitored. You can do whatever you want on there and sell a firearm, and kids aren’t dumb,” said Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen. “They know they can go on Telegram. I can go in there right now and go pick up a gun within the hour.”Allen says law enforcement doesn’t always get cooperation from social media apps.“They’re cooperating a little bit more now, they were not cooperative with law enforcement at all when we would find a gun sale online and we would go to them to see who the person that owned this account, they wouldn’t give it to us,” said Allen.The app allows kids to get into chat groups and make deals to buy guns. It’s nearly untraceable by law enforcement.”Telegram is a terrible app. If your kid has one of those apps on his phone, you need to get it off, and you need to figure out what’s going on because that’s where we’re finding kids,” said Bregman. “They use Telegram to contact someone else, end up buying a gun within a few hours, and then they’re armed and dangerous, literally.”While Bregman’s efforts for change were unsuccessful, one thing he was able to change was that whenever juveniles are charged with a gun crime, they’ll be held in a juvenile detention center.
“How fair is it to a family to be driving down the road and have juveniles hanging out the windows, shooting off automatic weapons? That’s not fair,” said Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman.
Bregman has been leading the charge to change the New Mexico Children’s Code, so penalties are tougher on juvenile offenders.
One way he wants to fight is to go after the guns.
“Kids see guns as trophies,” Bregman said. “They wanna take a picture of themselves with a gun and then post it on social media and think they’re gonna get very popular that way by getting a few likes. Then they take it to the next level.”
Two years ago, Bregman refused to reach plea agreements with juvenile offenders unless they told him where they got the guns.
“We know that people are willing to sell juveniles’ guns,” he said. “We know it’s a crime that should be taken far more serious under our laws here in New Mexico.”
Bregman found that of 127 plea agreements that involved juveniles with guns, 35% said they got the weapon from friends or a family member. Twenty-one percent said they got the gun through a social media app called Telegram.
It’s a problem that frustrates law enforcement.
“It’s not monitored. You can do whatever you want on there and sell a firearm, and kids aren’t dumb,” said Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen. “They know they can go on Telegram. I can go in there right now and go pick up a gun within the hour.”
Allen says law enforcement doesn’t always get cooperation from social media apps.
“They’re cooperating a little bit more now, they were not cooperative with law enforcement at all when we would find a gun sale online and we would go to them to see who the person that owned this account, they wouldn’t give it to us,” said Allen.
The app allows kids to get into chat groups and make deals to buy guns. It’s nearly untraceable by law enforcement.
“Telegram is a terrible app. If your kid has one of those apps on his phone, you need to get it off, and you need to figure out what’s going on because that’s where we’re finding kids,” said Bregman. “They use Telegram to contact someone else, end up buying a gun within a few hours, and then they’re armed and dangerous, literally.”
While Bregman’s efforts for change were unsuccessful, one thing he was able to change was that whenever juveniles are charged with a gun crime, they’ll be held in a juvenile detention center.
