A three-month investigation by San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari into the legality of nonprofit gun buyback programs in New Mexico provided few answers and left the county facing a potential legal claim.

Ferrari opened an investigation in December into New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, after the nonprofit came to Farmington to destroy and collect unwanted guns from four households. Ferrari questioned whether this violated New Mexico Statute Section 30-7-7.1.

He questioned how the guns were destroyed and the legality of what transpired on Dec. 16 when New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence Co-President Miranda Viscoli posted on Facebook that she made a special trip to Farmington to remove and destroy unwanted guns, for which she offered gift cards.

“The New Mexico Department of Justice released a statement confirming the legality of the gun buyback programs that have been run by New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, its officers and members,” the nonprofit organization stated in a news release.

“While the Department of Justice is specifically not in the business of rendering such opinions, the disinformation campaign created by the Farmington Sheriff’s Office led the U.S. Attorney for the State of New Mexico to take this extraordinary action,” it said.

The investigation by Ferrari began after the city of Farmington canceled a Dec. 8 gun buyback that was supposed to be done in collaboration between the Farmington Police Department and New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence.

“Our gun buyback was canceled by the city, but local residents asked us to show up anyway. So, we spent today dismantling guns house by house,” the organization posted on social media along with a photograph of several guns cut in half.

Viscoli said one gift card was given in exchange for the firearms.

Ferrari began asking for residents who participated in this buyback to come forward, because law enforcement was not present to conduct a “stolen firearm check.” He also worried that the guns were not destroyed to ATF standards.

“No stolen firearm check was conducted on the firearms, and we do not know the firearms’ location due to them being removed from San Juan County,” Ferrari said.

“It is important to remember that the Farmington issues began when the sheriff and others canceled our planned gun buyback with local law enforcement in the eleventh hour,” Viscoli said in a prepared statement. “Local gun owners who did not feel safe having these guns in their homes asked us to help them dispose of the weapons.”

At the time he opened the investigation, Ferrari stated he was not planning to file criminal charges against anyone, he simply had questions about whether the buyback was handled appropriately, since law enforcement staff were not present.

Ferrari partnered with the San Juan County District Attorney’s Office to question the legality of providing gift cards for guns and whether the guns were destroyed to ATF standards.

The two agencies asked for a legal analysis by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office in reference to the legality of nonprofit groups not having to undergo background checks on firearms they purchase while conducting their gun buyback program with and without law enforcement,” Ferrari wrote in an open letter to the public.

“We also forwarded our findings of firearms not being properly destroyed to the ATF due to this being a federal violation,” he wrote, adding that he had concerns about Viscoli taking the firearms into schools, where they were turned into garden tools.

Viscoli stated that New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence “met with the three top officers of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms to confirm that our established procedures for dismantling firearms conforms with best practices.”

She added, “It is hard to comprehend how or why anyone who cares about the safety of their community would get their holsters in a twist over this one.”

A Farmington resident, who did not come forward during the investigation, filed a tort claim notice against the county and the Sheriff’s Office afterward. Tracy Thrailkill said Ferrari’s investigation left her suffering from “severe emotional distress.”

Thrailkill had turned over unwanted firearms to Viscoli, because she wanted the guns out of her house, after the gun buyback was canceled. Thrailkill contacted Viscoli, who made a special trip to Farmington to meet with her, and “four different residences to cut up their guns,” said Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe, who helped facilitate the meeting.

Thrailkill stated in her tort claim that she was “dragged into and used by Sheriff Ferrari in his witch hunt against New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence and what should have been a good day was turned into a nightmare.”

Ferrari not only consulted with the New Mexico Department of Justice, questioning the buyback, because law enforcement was not present. He also shared photos with the ATF, regarding the destruction of the firearms.

Thrailkill wrote in her claim that this left her unable to eat or sleep.

“I collapsed from exhaustion,” she wrote, and “was physically ill every day for months, wondering if today was the day the sheriff’s department or the Feds would be knocking on my door to arrest me.”

Ferrari and the DA had to wait for an opinion from the New Mexico Department of Justice before action could be taken against anyone, and the response from Chief Deputy Attorney General James Grayson was open-ended.

Grayson stated that while best practices for gun buyback events should “include the involvement of law enforcement simultaneous shredding of the firearm,” and conducting background checks, he pointed out that there may be “limited situations” that preclude law enforcement participation and “would not trigger the requirement of a background check.”

“We emphasize that it would be prudent to conduct such events only in association with law enforcement,” he said. “A law enforcement presence provides an added measure of safety in conducting such an event.”

Law enforcement also has the capability of running the serial number “to determine whether a firearm has been reported stolen, and police officers can determine whether a firearm should be preserved in the event it is later found to be evidence of a crime,” Grayson wrote.

Grayson added that “law enforcement officers are also able to determine whether a certain destruction method satisfies ATF regulations.”

Grayson summarized his findings by stating that “there may be lawful methods of conducting a gun buyback event without the presence of law enforcement and without conducting background checks, but it would be a better practice to have law enforcement present and involved in these events.”

Ferrari and the DA also had concerns about gift cards being exchanged for guns could constitute the “sale” of the gun.

“When a nonprofit entity exchanges a gift card for a firearm, the gift card is ‘consideration’ that makes the exchange a sale,” Grayson wrote. “This is true even if the amount of a gift card is unrelated to the value of the firearm because consideration refers to ‘anything of value exchanged between the parties to a sale.’”

He then stated that if the firearm is surrendered to a nonprofit that “destroys it such that it is no longer a firearm, and provides, after destruction, a gift card in appreciation for the surrender, the gift card may not meet the definition of consideration.”

In her tort claim, Thrailkill stated that the firearms she turned over to New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, “no longer existed,” because they “were turned into scraps of metal and pieces of wood.”

She further stated that she “did not relinquish ownership” until the firearms were completely destroyed. “No violation or crime was ever committed by myself or Ms. Viscoli,” Thrailkill wrote.

She added that no background check was needed, because “these firearms were legally destroyed while in my possession, the owner, and no firearms existed to be sold.”

The Tri-City Record contacted San Juan County officials for a comment. Spokesman Devin Neeley said, “San Juan County does not comment on any pending litigation.”