Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller (AP Photo/Juan Labreche)
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Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller has banned firearms from city parks in the wake of the shooting during the vandalism of a statue earlier this week. You might be scratching your head over that, since the New Mexico state constitution rather specifically forbids cities from regulating firearms.

No law shall abridge the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms for security and defense, for lawful hunting and recreational use and for other lawful purposes, but nothing herein shall be held to permit the carrying of concealed weapons. No municipality or county shall regulate, in any way, an incident of the right to keep and bear arms.

Or NM Stat § 30-7-2 (2019) Unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon:

A. Unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon consists of carrying a concealed loaded firearm or any other type of deadly weapon anywhere, except in the following cases:
(5) by a person in possession of a valid concealed handgun license issued to him by the department of public safety pursuant to the provisions of the Concealed Handgun Carry Act [Chapter 29, Article 19 NMSA 1978].
B. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the carrying of any unloaded firearm.

Keller is adopting the St. Louis gun control model, pretending parks are somehow schools (or child care facilities or amusement parks). Whatever designation they need to justify carrying firearms there.

Matt Ross, communications director for Keller’s office, said Friday evening the new order is an extension of efforts the city began last year to prohibit weapons in facilities used for educating young people. “We issued that first administrative order to make it clear that the state law that applies to schools also applies to community centers,” Ross wrote in a text message, referencing a state law that prohibits deadly weapons at facilities used for school-related activities. “This latest administrative instruction makes it clear that law also applies to city parks and recreation centers.”

NM Stat § 29-19-8 forbids carrying a gun on school premises, as does § 30-7-2.1. But it appears Keller, and presumably some fairly incompetent legal counsel missed this part.

B. As used in this section, “school premises” means:

(1) the buildings and grounds, including playgrounds, playing fields and parking areas and any school bus of any public elementary, secondary, junior high or high school in or on which school or school-related activities are being operated under the supervision of a local school board; or

(2) any other public buildings or grounds, including playing fields and parking areas that are not public school property, in or on which public school-related and sanctioned activities are being performed.

A park, off of school premises, is not a school except when an official school-sanctioned event is taking place there. Keller is now violating the state constitution, § 30-7-2, and § 30-7-2.1, and § 30-7-2.4, which also limits the application of “school” to parks. Come to think of it, Keller’s parks redefinition also conflicts with the school designation in § 22-10A-40. That’s impressive work, even for a Democrat.

But let’s say Albuquerque pushes on and somehow designates some sort of “sanctioned school activity” is happening there on a permanent basis, thus pseudo-lawfully making parks into “schools.”

Whoopsie. That would mean Albuquerque will need to license or certify park staff and administrators who work there (and meet the minimum education standards), run everyone through background checks, and provide on-going professional development training.

Heck, they’ll have to provide park-goers free food. And I haven’t even gotten into the various facilities requirements for schools that would now apply to the parks.

I really don’t think they thought this through.

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76 COMMENTS

  1. They’ll probably lose this one in court when someone sues pointing to Art II, Sec 6 of the NM Constitution.

    • Maybe, maybe not; but in any case it will take its own sweet time to work through.

      Judges in New Mexico, and especially in Albuquerque, are not known for looking charitably upon the concerns of conservatives. Since guns are usually thought of as being associated with “old fat white guys” there’s also a perceived demographic element that will not help either.

      • I’m not as doubtful.

        People seem to forget that Santa Fe tried a similar approach years back, ’03 if memory serves, and lost, badly, at every level. They practically got laughed out of court.

        That’s what happens when you get stuck in the echo chamber of The New Mexican’s editorial page. Proggy as he’ll but not reflective of The City Different, nevermind the whole state.

        • This shows one of the biggest flaws in our Constitution. Legislators should NOT be allowed to enact a law until it is reviewed by the SCOTUS to establish constitutionality. Instead, these legislators create, enact, and enforce unconstitutional laws that stay in effect until the people are able to drag it through the legal system and “prove” it is unconstitutional. This is one amendment that the COS should be intent on adding to the Constitution.

        • Our Supreme court!?

          They’ll just punt any gun law that comes along in favor of rubber stamping some democrats’ illegal executive order.

          The court is as worthless to america as it has always been.

          Constitutionality is really not a big issue to the supremes.

  2. Yeah, we wouldn’t want any of those deplorables able to defend themselves against the “peaceful protesters”!

    • It’s kind of a weird state.

      Large fraction of the population owns guns, with most of the counties having declared themselves to be 2nd Amendment Sanctuaries; but the state traditionally votes Democrat.

      Bloomberg really wrapped it up last election, too. Not that it takes that much in this state, really, there’s only 2M people total, 600k in Albuquerque. So, take that city, take the state.

        • “Blame mass immigration.”

          Not from south of the US border.

          Blame Leftist refugees from southern California.

          They got fed up with the California bullshit and re-located to the cleaner air of New Mexico…

        • They got fed up with the California bullshit and re-located to the cleaner air of New Mexico…

          and brought the California bullshit with them….

        • Geoff is partially right, this is why S. Fe is referred to as “The San Francisco of the High Desert”. It’s been that way for decades.

          However it’s also true that there are a lot of old-line New Mexicans, including a lot of land granters that just traditionally vote Democrat. This has been true since NM became a state back in 1912.

          There are several factors that play into the latter portion of this which is what makes a lot of it confusing, especially since these are the people that occasionally get into it, and have even killed, BLM Agents (Bureau of Land Management for you folks East of the Mississippi.)

          One of the big reasons however is because NM, unlike most states these days, lacks a “professionalized” legislature. That is to say the state has it’s yearly legislative meeting for 30 days in odd years and 60 days (nominally) in even years. The Legislators get paid per diem for travel and whatnot but they’re not like, say, New York where being a Legislator is their full time job. The result is a Legislature that really doesn’t do that much in comparison to other states where the Legislature is constantly in session and actively looking for shit to do. As such, they don’t tend to step on people’s toes as much. Many years they struggle to pass a budget within the allotted time frame for the legislative session.

          In terms of big changes within the state, the legislature is also limited. Generally speaking the court system has been fairly good about respecting property and civil rights. The whole gay-wedding photography thing being a notable departure from this, but that was an anomaly historically speaking. This generally reasonable court system is combined with the legislature’s non-professional nature and the fact that NM has a rather rare method for amending it’s Constitution. A majority vote in both chambers of the legislature is required followed by a plebiscite the following calendar year where the measure also has to get majority support. This system makes it quite difficult to “inflame the passions of the people” and rush through big changes, and it’s pared with a legislative session system that is early in the year. By design this means that Constitutional Amendments are slow-walked and usually this means they’re defeated when they’re rash.

          Democrats outside of S.Fe and some suburbs of Burque don’t tend to be extremists but they also don’t tend to see a major reason to switch parties because from their point of view it generally matters little who’s running the state since the system is almost designed to prevent major, rash, changes and therefore tends to be fairly stable.

      • No….. the demonrats cheat in the elections….. which is EXACTLY why the state is really red but “votes” blue….. doesn’t take sherlock Holmes to figure that one out!

        • You obviously don’t live in New Mexico. While you can shove your childish name calling up your ass, you are also about as wrong as you could be about NM. NM is deeply Democratic–because of the other areas in which MAGA cultists are wrong–especially abortion access. Of late (last 10 years), Bloomberg and Giffords have supported candidates in primary challenges. They have succeeded about half the time. Those candidates didn’t win because of their stance on guns. They won because the republicans can’t keep their laws off of women’s bodies and old line Democrats wouldn’t utilize the massive NM funds from oil and gas royalties to improve early childhood education. Guns are collateral damage.

          But, no, NM is not by any stretch of the imagination a red state.

    • Its is becoming like other western states where urban population centers have enough DemocRATS to control the government while less populated conservative areas are screwed. NM and CO have already gone that route. AZ and ID are threatened but still staying red, at least for now.

  3. Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and Marxist Leftards like him fail to read, fathom and understand the english language because of their Feelz,so as a result it will have to go to the courts.

    • Once again relying on the a court system that hasn’t exactly been a champion of The Constitution…any Constitution. To decide what is,when and where “We The People”. May exercise Their Rights. Which will take years to decide all the while those Rights will be denied.

  4. Fuck him and his lawfare.

    If rioters don’t have to obey the law why should we? If law is only there to be used as weapon against us why should we obey it or stand for that use?

      • If rioters don’t have to obey the law why should we?

        Because, they will throw your ass in jail and instead of instant no bail release you will be held as a terrorist indefinitely with no bail….. Good luck with that.. I prefer to give them the opportunity to “force” me to lawfully defend myself, I would suggest you have a good lawyer BEFORE you take that route…

    • Exactly….its way past time for americans to riot in the street…. if the pavement apes can do it, so can we lol

  5. He also decided that unarmed social workers will deal with domestic and mental health incidents instead of the police. APD officers support this message

    • How can Albuquerque police possibly be racist and biased? The department was under investigation and came to a settlement with the USDOJ in 2014. (The reforms happened under Obama, for those keeping score at home.)

      That said … having dealt with the ABQPD a couple of times, I can’t see as how this would make things less effective, at least for things like property crime.

  6. Why don’t we, instead of letting these p.o.s. democ-rats destroy our second amendment with their b*llsh!t gun control laws, sit down and call/write our Republican State reps and senators, so that we can amend each state’s constitution with the same as New Mexico’s? Therefore we’re protected from any p.o.s. that might get elected in the future.

    “No law shall abridge the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms for security and defense, for lawful hunting and recreational use and for other lawful purposes, but nothing herein shall be held to permit the carrying of concealed weapons. No municipality or county shall regulate, in any way, an incident of the right to keep and bear arms.”

  7. You don’t understand. This and other similar actions are intended stir up the people and further divide the country into warring camps. Chaos is the goal. Bloody rebellion is the goal. The undermining and ultimate destruction of our form of government is the goal. This mayor knows that, as does every other Socialist/Communist in this country. And you know what? It’s working. And it will keep working as long as people continue to ignore the big picture and chase the latest shiny object.

      • Trump, like every previous President, is temporary and therefore expendable. What matters, and what must endure, is our Form of Government as described in the Constitution, not whoever happens to be in a position of power for a short time.

        • Yes, and in other news, water is wet.

          Not quite sure where you’re going with your logic on this…

        • Don’t worry…. the “life form” in that video doesn’t have the intelligence to get anything done….
          These evil, dark life forms will lose in the end… they represent evil in human form….
          Crime, drugs, laziness….. you name it, they encompass everything dirty about humankind..

        • I Haz A Question,

          I have seen posters on this very website advocate for Trump to be “president” for life. It’s a cult of personality just as deranged as those on the left that think he’s to blame for everything in the world.

        • @Hannibal
          There is a crazy person in any large enough group. See the poster above you for an example.

      • Can’t we strip them of their tax exempt status after this admission? Oh that’s right, the IRS and the Lois LoiNER-Holly Paz holdovers only target those “on ‘the Right”.

    • The undermining and ultimate destruction of our form of government is the goal.

      And the erasure of our countries history, good bad or otherwise…

    • It’s funny but none of the media that screams about militarized police batted an eye when police in full plate armor, helmets and ARs detained a bunch of armed counter-protesters at one of these statue-toppling events.

      I think the cities are lost in the sense that the leadership there is purposefully and obviously establishing a completely different set of laws. If you are liberal, you can break whichever laws you want. If you are socially conservative, i.e. you don’t want statutes torn down without a vote, you will be subject to every law.

  8. Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller has banned firearms from city parks in the wake of the shooting during the vandalism of a statue earlier this week.

    Exactly how many times was that statue SHOT? Did it survive?…

  9. Not widely mentioned it seems that the shooter did not have a carry permit despite NM permit being very easy to obtain.

    So criminals (rioters) attack other criminal (assault and no permit) and legal gun owners are at fault. Standard left wing rubbish.

  10. Make it so an adult carrying a weapon at school is ok, and he is welcome to call his parks schools.

    This should be the way across the board, all the carry here but not there, no school but a shopping mall is ok type laws are pointless other than for entrapment of the law abiding. Possession shouldn’t be a crime, unless you are actually committing a crime while possessing a gun.

    • Winter it will send….. throwing all you see into obscurity…. death of mother earth, never a rebirth, etc….

  11. Alexandria, VA is doing the same thing, along with getting together with local businesses to restrict CCW in their shops. Like Philly and Pittsburgh, it will go to court and get overturned. I just wish they would pap,y criminal penalties for politicians who willingly and knowingly violate the laws and constitutions of the state and federal geovernment.

    • I doubt it will get overturned as the VA legislature removed preemption laws this year. As I hang out in the Alexandria parks to fish and kayak, it would make it illegal for me to carry. Illegal to carry in a place I might need it more than other areas. It’s ridiculous. When it was brought up how many CHL holders were committing crimes in the parks and other locations, they said they didn’t have that information. Meaning it didn’t exist. They just don’t care and hate that the great unwashed are able to protect themselves from thugs and rioters. Also with the ordnance, if there is an event on your street or an adjacent street, you are barred from concealed carry. That means if there is a protest near your residence, you can’t leave your residence with firearms. You are in essence trapped, unless you wish to go disarmed. With what is happening in the country today, going disarmed isn’t the smartest decision. I really need to move to West Virginia.

  12. These sleazy jim crow gun control democRats will use anything and anyone including kids to get what they want. Justifying this gun ban on the backs of school kids who may or may not on occassion occupy a park facility is ludicrous.

  13. Funny …due to this hoax virus, Schools are not even in session…Where is the education in parks, When nothing is happening in school..

  14. Keller is far left radical marxist who hates the US, paints America and (especially ‘white’) Americans as racists, while embracing criminal terrorist causes like Antifa, and BLM to which he provides aid, comfort, and refuge.

    Under Keller’s far left (non) governance, Albuquerque has become a criminal’s wet dream, with skyrocketing homicide rates, violent crime, and property crime, violent Mexican drug cartels effectively rule the streets there.

    Police are too overwhelmed with rampant criminality to answer calls. Homeless and mentally ill drug addicts are literally everywhere on every street corner throughout the city defecating and urinating wherever they desire, panhandling, and harassing citizens at nearly every stop light by day, and fanning out through the city by night breaking into parked vehicles, and stealing everything that isn’t literally nailed down.

    Under state and local Democrat rule, New Mexico has become for law abiding citizens) a masked up, locked down, oppressive nightmare, a horrible place to live, and a really terrible place to visit.

  15. Has the mayor pushed prosecution of those who vandalized a long standing monument? He hasn’t, is that not passing strange, or is it to be expected? As to his park/school diktat, he should be beaten with it.

  16. I can understand parks in Albuquerque being though of as “education facilities” since the average ground squirrel is smarter than that mayor.

  17. Its the same Dem Playbook… we will do what ever we want until we get sued and have to use taxpayer money for the fines & court cost! Then we will just create another law! If they keep doing this u can ban guns 99% of the time & it cost the politicians nothing just hard working tax payers!

  18. Sure, parks in ABQ are “educational facilities” if all you want to learn is how to do meth and huff paint.

  19. The ABQ is such a shithole City, as for the entire State of NM. I was born and raised there, and have many family members who are still stuck in the land of entrapment. Food is great, weather is awesome but the liberal politics and the rampant nepotism and racism that exist in this State drove me away. Good luck with your homeless and jobless population, maybe they can be urban campers in your new re-education zones a.k.a. parks.

  20. Well, I have a ccw and I still carry in parks. I don’t care what this idiot says, neither does the criminal element. Keller , you are dumb ass and I openly defy you. The state constitution protects me from low life’s like you.

  21. I completely agree with you. I am a law student and I need help with my homework https://www.nursingpaper.com/ Therefore, I have a lot of time to walk in the park. I recommend everyone to breathe fresh air more often because it is so beneficial for our health. Thank you all for your attention and take care

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