The Patriot Post® · NM Governor Cancels the Second Amendment

“The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” It’s right there in the Second Amendment, which Democrat New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has apparently never read.

In a patently unconstitutional response to “gun violence” (a.k.a. cultural violence among primarily Democrat constituents), Governor Lujan Grisham unilaterally issued an emergency public health order Friday to “suspend” the right of law-abiding citizens to carry firearms in Albuquerque and the surrounding county for at least the next 30 days.

She says she wants to “make New Mexicans safer,” but she might have been better off taking a cue from the ridiculous plea for a daytime cease-fire in Chicago. Criminals are about as likely to obey her order as they are to, you know, not murder someone.

“No constitutional right, in my view, including my oath, is intended to be absolute,” Lujan Grisham declared, echoing numerous tyrannical pronouncements made by President Joe Biden. “There are restrictions on free speech. There are restrictions on my freedoms.” She added, “I’ve warned everyone that we expect a direct challenge.”

Indeed, the National Association for Gun Rights and a private citizen have filed a lawsuit. But she’s already lost a challenge. It was called New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, and it was a 2022 Supreme Court decision striking down a law severely restricting the right to bear arms in the Empire State. If a duly passed law was shot down, what does the governor think will happen to her lawless order?

In a press conference announcing the order, the governor was flanked by some cops she used as political props, but not all law enforcement officials are on board. In fact, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina and Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen both publicly refused to enforce it, as did Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman: “As an officer of the court, I cannot and will not enforce something that is clearly unconstitutional.”

Allen held a press conference. “The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office will not enforce this segment of the order,” Allen said. “While I understand the urgency, the temporary ban challenges the foundations of our Constitution, but most importantly, it is unconstitutional. My oath was to protect the Constitution, and that is what I will do.”

He added that Lujan Grisham acted despite knowing she didn’t have the support of law enforcement. He further explained that there’s “enough violence in Bernalillo County” without adding political violence or reducing public safety by depriving law-abiding citizens of their “constitutional right of self-defense.”

That sent Lujan Grisham into a tizzy. She issued a statement berating Allen and the rest for defying her:

I don’t need a lecture on constitutionality from Sheriff Allen: what I need is action. What we need is for leaders to stand up for the victims of violent crime. We need law enforcement, district attorneys, public officials, school leaders and state agencies to use every single tool at their disposal to stop this violence. Period.

This is an administration that has treated the gun violence epidemic as the crisis that it is. We’ve passed common-sense gun legislation, including red flag laws, domestic violence protections, a ban on straw purchases, and safe storage laws; dedicated hundreds of millions of dollars to a fund specifically to help law enforcement hire and retain officers; increased penalties for violent offenders and provided massive support to intervention programs.

We’ve given you the tools, Sheriff Allen— now stop being squeamish about using them. I will not back down from doing what’s right and I will always put the safety of the people of New Mexico first.

So the question for Allen, Medina, and other law enforcement officials might be this: “Why not arrest Governor Lujan Grisham?” That’s what stalwart Second Amendment advocate Charles C.W. Cooke wants to know, albeit with tongue-in-cheek.

Lujan Grisham simply wanted to declare this suspension, despite having no legal justification for doing so. To emphasize that point, Cooke “facetiously” argues:

So arrest her — without a warrant and without cause. Put her in prison for 30 days without a trial. Raise her taxes to 100 percent without an appropriations bill. Take her property without reimbursement. Quarter some troops in her home. Impose an excessive fine. Hit her with a bill of attainder — imposed ex post facto if possible. And, for good measure, prevent her from complaining about it by imposing a monthlong gag order — to be lifted once this emergency has gone.

Would that be wrong? Here’s a challenge: Explain why it would be wrong without appealing to the rule of law.

It’s a brilliant thought exercise, though it’s not unlike real-world examples. Governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis have both sent many busloads of illegal aliens to sanctuary jurisdictions to prove and highlight the gross hypocrisy of the open-borders crowd. It’s working.

As for New Mexicans, a good many of them are still Americans who understand their rights. Scores of them had the stones to march together in Albuquerque while carrying firearms openly. Democrats must be utterly shocked that no crime broke out during or around that march. No “gun violence” spontaneously erupted merely because guns were present.

Heck, even anti-gun radical David Hogg, “survivor” of the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida, rebuked Lujan Grisham. “I support gun safety,” he said (plagiarizing Democrat Representative Ted Lieu), “but there is no such thing as a state public health emergency exception to the U.S. Constitution.” When you’ve lost David Hogg…

Meanwhile, however, Miranda Viscoli, co-president of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, cheered the order, repeating the banal line, “If it saves one life, then it’s worth doing.”

Stopping people from driving in cars, flying in planes, biking on roads, hiking in the woods, and sitting in bathtubs would also save at least one life, so we look forward to Democrats prohibiting those joys. Ending abortion would save millions of lives, but we don’t hear any leftists clamoring for that.

In short, even the most well-meaning attempts at regulating gun rights either fail to actually save lives or end up costing lives. And when we say “well-meaning,” we’re giving a huge benefit of the doubt because normal Americans who are misinformed by the media often don’t fully understand the implications of gun control. On the other hand, tyrannical politicians like Lujan Grisham who want only to disarm their subjects know exactly what they’re doing.

(Updated)