A New Mexico lawmaker is reintroducing a bill that would make shooting threats at schools a felony.
"It's not illegal currently to call in a shooting threat to any building," Republican Sen. Craig Brandt told KRQE. "It seems like a very common-sense thing. We have a felony if you call in a bomb threat. A shooting threat is pretty much the same alignment."
Since school started last August, Albuquerque schools have received at least four shooting threats, according to the station. In November, a credible threat was made while a high school football game was being played, so the stadium had to be evacuated.
If the bill is passed, shooting threats would be treated the same as a bomb threat. The repercussions for calling in a shooting threat would be a fourth-degree felony in order to dissuade people from calling in the threats.
"It's also a way of hopefully protecting our kids, protecting them from being subjected to this over and over again," Brandt told KRQE.
The bill would not be limited to school shooting threats alone but would also be applicable to anything that sparks a police response, interrupts public building operators or uses a threat to cause fear in others.