New Mexico is once again trying to ban guns from being carried in public spaces. A judge previously declared Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's ban unconstitutional. Now, she is back at it. She issued a new order banning them from public parks or playgrounds.
"I will not accept the status quo – enough is enough," Grisham said when she announced the new order on Friday. This new health order, which took effect Friday, also covers all public spaces where children can play in Bernalillo County and its most populous city, Albuquerque.
New Mexico Gun Order by Santiago Adolfo Ospital on Scribd
The Democratic governor claimed that the judge who ruled against her measure agreed that something needs to be done "about this emergency, or about the issues related to violence, gun violence and public safety generally," according to a statement reported by ABC.
District Judge David Herrera Urías ruled against the first order, declaring that something must be done "in the face of these terrible deaths," but that the order went against the outcome of a landmark Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Americans' right to carry a gun, for self-defense, in public.
I have amended the public health order to specify that you cannot carry #guns in city parks or playgrounds in Albuquerque & Bernalillo Co. I respect the judge's decision on the last public order, but I am far from done fighting to protect New Mexicans. https://t.co/Ox2nNIilrs
— Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (@GovMLG) September 15, 2023
Hannah Hill, executive director of the National Foundation for Gun Rights, one of the organizations suing the state over the order, criticized the governor for continuing to try to ban people from carrying weapons by executive order.
The NRA and Republican lawmakers also filed lawsuits against the first order, though they were criticized for taking too long. Members of the Democratic Party also criticized the move and some lawmakers even called for the governor to be impeached.
Many people are unhappy. Some even took to the streets. Several New Mexicans defied the first order by protesting with signs and waving American flags. Many did so while carrying their weapon.
