Dan Lewis, who serves on the nonpartisan Albuquerque City Council, called the order an unconstitutional edict. The top Republican in the New Mexico Senate, Greg Baca of Belen, also denounced Lujan Grisham’s order as an infringement on the gun rights of law-abiding citizens. “She needs to be held accountable for stripping the God-given rights of millions away with the stroke of a pen,” he said in a statement announcing the lawsuit and request for a restraining order. “And we have a very conservative Supreme Court that is poised to expand Second Amendment rights,” Levinson added.ĭudley Brown, founder and president of the Colorado-based gun-rights group, called the governor's action unconstitutional. Levinson told The Associated Press Friday over the phone that Lujan Grisham would draw a court fight, saying the governor was “bumping up against the Second Amendment, no doubt about it.” “No person, other than a law enforcement officer or licensed security officer, shall possess a firearm … either openly or concealed,” the governor's order states. The governor also cited the shooting death in August of a 13-year-old girl in Taos County. Lujan Grisham said she was compelled to act following recent shootings including the death this week of an 11-y ear-old boy outside a minor league baseball stadium and gunfire last month that killed a 5-ye ar-old girl who was asleep in a motor home. Department of Justice police reform settlement. Police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said enforcing the order also could put Albuquerque police in a difficult position with a U.S. Medina noted that Albuquerque police made more than 200 arrests of suspects in killings in the last two years. “I am wary of placing my deputies in positions that could lead to civil liability conflicts,” Allen said, “as well as the potential risks posed by prohibiting law-abiding citizens from their constitutional right to self-defense.” “This office will continue to focus on criminals of any age that use guns in the commission of a crime.”īernalillo County Sheriff John Allen said he was uneasy about how gun owners might respond. “As an officer of the court, I cannot and will not enforce something that is clearly unconstitutional,” said Bregman, the top prosecutor in the Albuquerque area. She said state police would be responsible for enforcing what amount to civil violations and carry a fine of up to $5,000.īernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, who once served as a Democratic Party leader and was appointed by Lujan Grisham, on Saturday joined Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and Police Chief Harold Medina saying they wouldn’t enforce the order. The governor, a Democrat, said the 30-day suspension, enacted as an emergency public health measure, would apply in most public places, from city sidewalks to parks. The challenge was expected, but even so, the governor's action Friday was an attempt to “move the debate,” said Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount’s Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, after Lujan Grisham announced that she was temporarily suspending the right to carry firearms in her state’s largest city and surrounding Bernalillo County. District Court in New Mexico suing Lujan Grisham and seeking an immediate block to the implementation of her order. The National Association for Gun Rights and Foster Haines, a member who lives in Albuquerque, filed documents in U.S. Michelle Lujan Grisham's emergency order suspending the right to carry firearms in public in and around Albuquerque drew an immediate court challenge from a gun-rights group Saturday, as legal scholars and advocates said they expected. Governor's action Friday was an attempt to ‘move the debate,’ says law professor

Albuquerque journal editorials