Shooting Fetus

The Santa Fe New Mexican goes off about fetal homicide laws - sparked by a recent gun murder incident in which a man killed his father-in-law and pregnant wife.  The article is entitled Killing of Fetus Sparks Debate.  I don't hear debate in this article as much as orchestration of the next effort to change the law and a whole lot of emotion.

The case of Marino Leyba Jr., currently charged with two counts of murder, also has spurred backers of a fetal homicide law in New Mexico who say they will try again to get such a bill through the Legislature.

Leyba cannot be charged with homicide in connection with his unborn son's death because existing law in New Mexico doesn't consider a fetus to be a human being, District Attorney Angela "Spence" Pacheco has said.   "We're having many dialogues about this," Pacheco said. "But we don't make the law, we follow the law. And until the Legislature (changes the law), we can't do anything." (...)

"Just looking at the autopsy photos, it's clear we're talking about a baby boy here and not a fetus," Santa Fe police Capt. Gary Johnson said. "I was unaware that we didn't have a law that would protect a baby in the later stages of pregnancy. It's wrong (not to have such a law). This is not an issue of pro-choice or pro-life. It's an issue of protecting a pregnant woman and her child." 

(A father-in-law can fend for himself, I suppose.) Does that choice nugget of paternalism make anyone safer from gun violence?   The focus on what's in the womb enables the big picture to go unexamined.   More murder charges and the lawmaking dance will do nothing to address violence and poverty in northern New Mexico.  Nothing.