New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham may have bitten off more than she meant to with her allegedly “temporary” gun ban in and around Albuquerque. Calling it an emergency health order, Gov. Grisham prohibited the carrying – openly or concealed – of firearms in the Land of Enchantment’s largest city and surrounding county for 30 days. “I welcome the debate and fight about how to make New Mexicans safer,” she declared at a news conference. It’s good that she welcomes the fight – because state lawmakers are bringing one. For clearly violating the Second Amendment, Republican state representatives are calling for her impeachment.
Bad Medicine
In 2021, there were 110 homicides in Albuquerque, a record for the city. In 2022, Duke City broke that record with 120. The year-to-date homicide rate as of August of this year, however, is 11% lower than it was last year at the same time. To frame it in terms of the governor’s “public health emergency” narrative, if the increase in homicides in recent years is an illness, the city’s already in recovery.
Several recent shootings, some resulting in child deaths, however, provide the perfect excuse for a radically anti-Second Amendment executive to unilaterally implement a progressive gun ban – and this is far from her first shot at gun control. Since 2019, she has signed several bills restricting gun access, including a “red flag” law that went into effect in 2020.
Those who violate this emergency order can be hit with civil penalties, including a fine of up to $5,000. The only exceptions to the ban are law enforcement and armed security. Citizens with concealed carry permits can carry on private property or transport their firearms, unloaded and with a trigger lock in place, from one location to another, but that’s it. No Second Amendment right to self-defense for the residents or visitors to Bernalillo County. Grisham, it seems, has taken that left turn at Albuquerque that Bugs Bunny always talked about.
Even the county sheriff isn’t a fan of the order. “While I understand and appreciate the urgency, the temporary ban challenges the foundation of our constitution, which I swore an oath to uphold,” Sheriff John Allen said. “I am wary of placing my deputies in positions that could lead to civil liability conflicts, as well as the potential risks posed by prohibiting law-abiding citizens from their constitutional right to self-defense.”
Impeachment in the Works
State Representatives Stefani Lord and John Block, both Republicans, responded by calling for impeachment. “This is an abhorrent attempt at imposing a radical, progressive agenda on an unwilling populace,” read a statement from Lord. “Rather than addressing crime at its core, Grisham is restricting the rights of law-abiding gun owners.”
As appropriate as that may sound to Second Amendment advocates nationwide, impeachment is unlikely. Currently, the New Mexico Senate has 27 Democrats to 14 Republicans, and the House has 45 Democrats to 25 Republicans. For a state with a Democrat trifecta to fire the governor over a violation of the Second Amendment would be quite a stretch.
A legal challenge to the order itself, on Second Amendment grounds, is quite likely the “debate and fight” the governor had in mind, and it seems far more likely to succeed. Even then, however, it’s no guarantee. The US District Court for the District of New Mexico is presently made up of seven judges appointed by Republicans and five appointed by Democrats. One might assume that results in a slight conservative split that sees the order overturned – but then the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, the next step up and the stop before the US Supreme Court, has a left-wing majority. Perhaps it makes its way to the highest court in the land, but how likely is that to happen before the order expires anyway?
One concern that still needs to go before the courts is the precedent this sets. Without judicial action, what’s to stop Grisham from extending this order because (insert excuse here)? What if her plan backfires, and the murder rate spikes because the people of Bernalillo County – the law-abiding ones, who aren’t out committing crimes to begin with – are disarmed and defenseless? Well, if one month doesn’t work, perhaps six months or a year will! What’s to stop anti-gun governors or mayors across the nation from doing the same?
Indeed, the governor has opted for a "devil may care" attitude in her policy's defense, responding to reporters that the Constitution may not be set in stone. "No constitutional right, in my view, including my oath, is intended to be absolute," she brazenly declared.
If It Saves One Life …
Logically, the emergency order seems like bad medicine that just won’t work. Worse, it might have the opposite effect of what’s ostensibly desired. Assuming Grisham’s goal is actually the preservation of life, and not, as a more cynical person might assume, simply to capitalize on tragedy to advance the progressive cause of gun control, then one must wonder why she believes in this order. How many of the murderers in Albuquerque does the governor think will care one whit about her order not to go about armed? How is it that disarming the people who actually obey the law makes them safer?
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (Photo by Toya Sarno Jordan/Getty Images)
Miranda Viscoli, co-president of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, praised the governor’s order as necessary, parroting that tried-and-true statist line: “If it saves one life, then it’s worth doing.” Funny how it only ever applies to leftist causes. If it saves one life, is it not worth banning abortion? If it saves one life, is it not worth prosecuting illegal immigrants who commit crimes the first time they’re arrested, rather than playing the catch-and-release game until they finally escalate to murder?
And what if it costs lives, rather than saves them? The Albuquerque Police Department releases weekly updates to their crime statistics. The month of August 2023 saw five cases with seven victims, all but one of whom were killed using a firearm. So far in September, there have been three murders, two of which were gun-related. A month from now, the world will be able to objectively measure the success or failure of Grisham’s emergency order, and the unit of measurement will be human lives lost to gun-toting murderers. If, in fact, the death toll rises, will even her own party join the call for impeachment? After all, if it saves even one life …
