Covid Playbook Redux: New Mexico Governor Cites ‘Public Health Emergency’ To Suspend Second Amendment
Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham tried to unilaterally suspend New Mexicans’ Second Amendment rights on Thursday, under the guise of a “public health emergency.”
The two-term governor handed down a 30-day suspension of concealed and open-carry in Bernalillo County, the state’s most populated region and home of Albuquerque. Grisham cited three shootings in July, August, and September to attempt to justify suspending citizens’ constitutional freedoms via an executive public health order.
“The time for standard measures has passed,” Grisham said in a press release. Apparently, “when New Mexicans are afraid to be in crowds, to take their kids to school, to leave a baseball game — when their very right to exist is threatened by the prospect of violence at every turn,” Grisham thinks it’s appropriate to suspend their right to defend themselves.
Grisham became an emblem of elite hypocrisy during coronavirus lockdowns — the last time she suspended constituent rights in the name of public health. In 2020, Grisham famously opened up a jewelry store so she could purchase jewelry while “non-essential” businesses were closed.
Amy Swearer, a senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the governor’s latest order suspending gun rights “is completely unconstitutional.”
“It’s also just logically nuts,” Swearer wrote. “Concealed carry permit holders aren’t the ones driving gun crime, and now you’re telling actual criminals that they have free reign because their victims can’t be armed.”
Even Democrats backed away from Grisham’s unilateral gun measure.
“I support gun safety laws. However, this order from the Governor of New Mexico violates the U.S. Constitution,” wrote California Rep. Ted Lieu on X. “No state in the union can suspend the federal Constitution. There is no such thing as a state public health emergency exception to the U.S. Constitution.”
Far-left anti-Second Amendment activist David Hogg agreed with the California lawmaker in another post.
“I support gun safety but there is no such thing as a state public health emergency exception to the U.S. Constitution,” Hogg wrote.
The Colorado-based National Association for Guns Rights immediately sued the state over the “public health” order. The group, alongside Albuquerque resident Foster Haines, filed against Grisham in the U.S. District Court in New Mexico citing Supreme Court precedent set in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. The ruling last year upheld Americans’ right to carry firearms and implemented strict constitutional standards for state gun restrictions.
“Grisham is throwing up a middle finger to the Constitution and the Supreme Court,” said Dudley Brown, the president of the gun rights group. “Her Executive Order is in blatant disregard for Bruen. She needs to be held accountable for stripping the God-given rights of millions away with the stroke of a pen.”
A pair of New Mexico state lawmakers responded to the governor’s latest order by calling for impeachment.
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