NM governor’s gun emergency becomes hers
Lujan Grisham, other Democrats disrespect Constitution, Bill of Rights, founders
(Photo credit of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is her photo on her governor Facebook page.)
It took five days for New Mexico Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to become toxic to her own party and her emergency gun order to unravel.
"No constitutional right, in my view, including my oath, is intended to be absolute," Lujan Grisham said in response to a reporter’s question on her emergency declaration Sept. 8.
Lujan Grisham declared an emergency for 30 days preventing public open or concealed carry in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. The move stemmed from two recent incidents involving children killed in gun violence.
Froylan Villegas, 11, was killed Sept. 6 in a road-rage incident where someone shot at the vehicle he was in 17 times, killing the boy and injuring an aunt. Also, Galilea Samaniego, 5, was killed in a drive-by shooting while sleeping in a trailer in southwest Albuquerque, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
Lujan Grisham had gun-rights organizations sue her and at least two Republican state lawmakers called for Grisham to be impeached. That’s just the beginning of the fallout from her infamous comment.
Bernalillo County Sheriff John D. Allen, also a Democrat, refused to enforce Lujan Grisham’s emergency order. Albuquerque City Police Chief Harold Medina echoed Allen. That means the state police have that responsibility. On Sept. 11, a protest of several hundred people in Albuquerque had many citizens openly carrying and defying the governor.
Then, on Sept. 12, New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez informed Lujan Grisham he would not be defending her in the lawsuit on her emergency order.
By Sept. 13, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against her emergency gun order.
Left-wing narratives of “do something about guns” too often focus on taking guns from law-abiding citizens or more background checks–as if government doesn’t already do this–rather than real issues that impact crime, such as:
The growing mental health crisis;
The drug issue, including the opioid crisis;
Divorce or dysfunctional families; and
Governors like Lujan-Grisham like to create the impression that their “good intentions” matter. Their good intentions are “saving lives,” “protecting children and families,” or “making sure law enforcement does things right.”
They also dislike all talk of good guys with guns stopping bad guys with guns.
Good guys with guns stop crimes in this country every day. These are well-trained law-abiding citizens who may pull a gun to stop a crime in progress, or perhaps defend their life, the lives of their family members, or their property.
The Department of Justice and law enforcement agencies don’t maintain data on defensive gun use. The Washington D.C.-based Heritage Foundation started a website in 2019 to chronicle defensive gun use nationwide. It stated:
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost every major study on defensive gun use has found that Americans use their firearms defensively between 500,000 and 3 million times each year. There’s good reason to believe that most defensive gun uses are never reported to law enforcement, much less picked up by local or national media outlets.
In July 2021, 6 weeks before resigning from office, then NYS Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order declaring a gun violence emergency.
If one searches for similar emergency gun declarations in other blue states, these kinds of emergencies are routine. Here are Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing a U.S. constitutional amendment.
This reliance on emergency declarations debases our constitutional government institutions.
Democratic public officials disrespect the Constitution and Bill of Rights because they believe the governors have absolute power over the governed.
Democratic public officials disrespect the Constitution and Bill of Rights because they don’t respect the founders or the plain language used to craft them..
Democratic public officials disrespect the Constitution and Bill of Rights because they hate that the nation’s founding documents limit the power of the federal government.
The covid pandemic helped governors realize they can just circumvent the legislative process and go straight to an emergency declaration. It avoids the grueling legislative process, which is hearings, amendments, and votes. Emergency declarations likely involve a governor’s inner circle and not many others.
Covid also taught the governors no debate is a good thing. They can just declare an emergency and everyone is supposed to blindly get in line. Unfortunately, we do not see state legislatures and individual state lawmakers demanding accountability on these declared emergencies. State lawmakers must develop a backbone and push back on emergencies by re-asserting the constitutional order of legislation, public debate, amendments, and votes.
Constitutional boundaries and separation of powers is the opposite of government by decree, or emergency declaration. Governments at all levels must restore genuine debate because ideas have consequences.
Not altering from this course of emergency declarations will bring more dire results.