NM Gov cancels 2nd Amendment in Albuquerque

 

We should rightly call what happened in New Mexico yesterday outrageous, but things like this are happening so often these days that some of us may have started to become numb to it. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order suspending the right of citizens to carry firearms across the City of Albuquerque and the surrounding county for thirty days. She claimed the ability to do this by declaring a state of emergency in the area and seizing emergency powers under that premise. The “emergency” in question was a spate of shootings in the city in recent weeks. The Governor plans to have the state police enforce the order, likely because the city’s Chief of Police has already refused to enforce it and the County Sheriff immediately said he was “uneasy” about the order. (Associated Press)

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday issued an emergency order suspending the right to carry firearms in public across Albuquerque and the surrounding county for at least 30 days in response to a spate of gun violence.

The Democratic governor said she expects legal challenges but was compelled to act because of recent shootings, including the death of an 11-year-old boy outside a minor league baseball stadium this week.

Lujan Grisham said state police would be responsible for enforcing what amount to civil violations. Albuquerque police Chief Harold Medina said he won’t enforce it, and Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen said he’s uneasy about it because it raises too many questions about constitutional rights.

The first question crossing your mind is probably, ‘Wait… can she do that?’ The answer would be “no,” at least in a sane world where the Constitution was still respected. This would be a dodgy move (to say the least) even if she somehow convinced the state legislature, the Mayor of Albuquerque, and the City Council to all go along with it. But she didn’t. She just pulled the same tool out of her bag of tricks that became common during the pandemic. She declared a “state of emergency” and began issuing edicts like any totalitarian government, Constitution be damned...more