ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — We’ve lost too many kids in just the past month because of situations that are completely avoidable. In the latest case, Albuquerque police said a two-year-old boy may still be alive if his mother had locked up her gun. Leon Garcia died Sunday after they said he got the gun from her purse and shot himself.

His mom, 20-year-old Amilia Garcia, is facing charges in his death along with three others who were in the apartment when the shooting happened. Chief Harold Medina said Monday they’ll be updating her charges to include Bennie’s Law.

Lawmakers passed it after a classmate shot and killed 13-year-old Bennie Hargrove at Washington Middle School in Albuquerque in 2021. That shooter got his gun from home and took it to school. Bennie’s law holds gun owners accountable if they don’t secure their firearms and then a child uses it to commit a crime or hurt themselves.

The other crisis endangering children is fentanyl. Two toddlers in Espanola were exposed to the drug recently. Both overdosed and one died.

The first case happened in late March. Espanola police said an 18-month-old accidentally ingested fentanyl at home. He survived, thanks to Narcan, but his parents Caitlyn Sanchez and Matthew Padilla are facing child abuse charges. Last week investigators arrested another mom in Espanola after her 15-month-old son was exposed to fentanyl. Police said 26-year-old Ariana Vigil told them she smoked fentanyl and left the burnt foil on the bedroom floor where her toddler got it and put it in her mouth. That little girl died, and Vigil is charged with child abuse resulting in death.

This past legislative session lawmakers tried to pass a bill to automatically charge someone with child abuse if there is evidence they exposed a child to fentanyl. Right now, methamphetamine is the only drug carrying that automatic charge. The bill would have made that exposure along a third-degree felony which carries an average of two and a half years in state prison.

It was assigned to two house committees, the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee voted three to two to table it, which basically kills the bill.