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Less than a month after New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) issued a temporary public health order suspending open and concealed carry of firearms in the Albuquerque metro area, a federal judge blocked the effort, and Lujan Grisham issued a new order that largely curtails the ambitious and controversial move.
Following fierce backlash, the revised order will limit the firearm ban to parks and playgrounds in Albuquerque and its surrounding county.
Lujan Grisham issued the original order earlier this month, which would have banned carrying firearms in all public spaces throughout Albuquerque and the surrounding county for 30 days. She described the move as a vital response to gun violence in the region — an issue she declared as a public health emergency across the state.
Officials on both sides of the aisle quickly criticized the ban. On Tuesday, Demonstrators in downtown Albuquerque rallied to protest the order, some wearing holstered handguns and carrying rifles. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez (D) told Lujan Grisham he would not defend the rule in court, believing it to be unconstitutional. Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen (D) said there was no way to enforce the order.
“Is there a realistic way to enforce this order? No, there is not because — we’ll cut that conversation off because it’s unconstitutional,” Allen told reporters Monday.
Several groups sued to block Lujan Grisham’s original order, and on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David Urias sided with plaintiffs and pressed pause on the policy, granting a temporary restraining order to block the governor’s decision.
“I’m going to continue pushing to make sure that all of us are using every resource available to put an end to this public health emergency with the urgency it deserves,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement Friday regarding her latest order. “I will not accept the status quo — enough is enough.”
Albuquerque, New Mexico’s most populous city with more than half a million residents, has endured an increase in gun violence. In each of the last two years, the city set homicide records. Lujan Grisham’s announcement came soon after an 11-year-old boy in Albuquerque was shot and killed in an incident that police said appeared to involve an act of road rage, The Washington Post reported. She cited his death, among other cases involving children, as the impetus for the ban.
“I lost an 11-year-old boy to road rage at a baseball game,” Lujan Grisham said. “That is untenable and must immediately end.”
Her latest order specifies that no person — with the exception of law enforcement or licensed security officer — may possess a firearm, openly or concealed, in public parks or playgrounds, “or other public area provided for children to play in,” within cities of counties averaging 1,000 or more violent crimes per 100,000 residence per year since 2021. This applies to Albuquerque and Bernalillo County.
Lujan Grisham’s new order replaces the order halted by the federal judge. The latest order clarifies that the limits placed on the open and concealed carrying of guns does not apply to parklands managed by the New Mexico’s Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department or State Land Office.
Mark Berman and Marisa Iati contributed to this report.
Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/09/17/open-concealed-firearm-carry-ban-new-mexico/