New Mexico governor defends gun ban against ‘narrow’ readings of constitutions
Luke Gentile
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Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) attempted to defend her 30-day executive order blocking open and concealed carrying of firearms, criticizing “narrow” interpretations of both New Mexico’s and the nation’s constitutions.
“Well, we’re gonna see,” Lujan Grisham told CNN’s Poppy Harlow Tuesday after being asked how the governor’s order in Albuquerque stands up to both the New Mexico Constitution and the Constitution of the United States.
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“Look, I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think I had the right,” she said. “I have the right.”
Lujan Grisham said she is afforded that right because the situation in Albuquerque constitutes a public health emergency, allowing her to institute a “suspension.
“It’s a suspension. It’s not a ban, and we’ll see what all of these court actions do, and I did say publicly, Poppy, look, I got a Supreme Court that says my personal body can be restricted, and yet NRA and other issues on Second Amendment keep getting broadened,” she said.
The Supreme Court‘s 2022 decision in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen articulated a “history and tradition” test for gun control laws, and the New Mexico Constitution maintains that “no law shall abridge the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms for security and defense … No municipality or county shall regulate, in any way, an incident of the right to keep and bear arms.”
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Lujan Grisham argued that she is not violating either the U.S. or New Mexico Constitution.
“I don’t believe that we are,” she said. “And if that narrow reading of the Constitution, which has been tested in the state, we wouldn’t have universal background checks. We wouldn’t have a waiting period. We wouldn’t have a red flag law. We wouldn’t have a prohibition for straw purchases … None of those would have been deemed constitutional.”