After an 11-year-old was shot and killed in Albuquerque on Wednesday, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a “gun violence public health emergency.” Just what that would mean in practice wasn’t immediately clear.
As the Governor said in signing the declaration . . .
“Today, I join the family of an 11-year-old boy in mourning his violent death yesterday. And I mourn the loss of a 5-year-old girl murdered in her bed last month. These are disgusting acts of violence that have no place in our communities. As a mother and grandmother, I cannot fathom the depth of these losses, and their effects will be felt by families, friends and communities forever. I send my most sincere condolences to the loved ones of both of these children.
The time for standard measures has passed. Today I am declaring gun violence a public health emergency in New Mexico.
After what Americans experienced in terms of limits on their rights during similar emergency declarations during the pandemic, it wasn’t unreasonable to expect the Governor would use this new emergency declaration as a pretext for a power-grab and to implement fresh restrictions on New Mexicans’ civil rights.
This evening Governor Grisham did exactly that, exercising the new powers she arrogated to herself the previous day by suspending the Second Amendment right to bear arms in Albuquerque and all of Bernalillo County for the next 30 days.
From kob.com . . .
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham says she is suspending open and concealed carry privileges in public spaces in Albuquerque and throughout Bernalillo County for the next 30 days.
Gov. Lujan Grisham declared gun violence a public health emergency Thursday, following the murder of an 11-year-old boy on his way home from an Isotopes game Wednesday night. That case, combined with several other violent cases involving children, sparked the decision.
The new public health order is effective Friday, Sept. 8. After 30 days, they will evaluate whether they should renew the order or make adjustments.
The public health order is a statewide mandate, but it only suspends open and concealed carry privileges in communities with extremely high violent crime rates and fire-arm related emergency room visits. Right now, that only includes the metro.
Note the jaw-dropping use of the term “privileges” when referring to the constitutionally protected right to bear arms in the media report.
The unabashed contempt for constitutional rights that’s necessary to suspend an enumerated civil right based solely on Grisham’s own say-so is breathtaking. The Governor’s tyrannical — there’s no other term for it — move will, undoubtedly, be challenged in the courts, likely as soon as tomorrow.
Bruen literally says you can’t ban carry in a whole city.
To the extent this is about crime, people with carry permits aren’t the ones doing any notable amount of that crime.
It’s both unconstitutional and stupid policy. https://t.co/wAwpT2FTJO
— Kostas Moros (@MorosKostas) September 8, 2023
New Mexico law gives the state’s citizens the power to recall public officials. You’d have to expect that an illegal action like this, shredding the rights of law-abiding citizens, will be exactly the motivation needed to prompt a push to remove her from office. We can only hope that campaign is successful.
