Michelle Lujan Grisham, the Governor of New Mexico, recently issued an updated public health order to temporarily halt the presence of firearms near parks and playgrounds in Albuquerque and the surrounding county. This comes after a federal judge temporarily put a halt to a broader order of suspending firearms.
This suspension is in reaction to escalating gun violence incidents — including fatal mass shootings at Farmington and Red River in May, along with three child fatalities from subsequent shootings that stretched from July to September.
Declaring gun violence and drug abuse as public health emergencies last Friday, the governor, a Democrat, proceeded to suspend open and concealed carry laws in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County — temporarily outlawing the carriage of firearms on public property, except under certain conditions.
“The time for standard measures has passed,” said Lujan Grisham, “and when New Mexicans are hesitant to congregate, afraid to send their children to school, or feel threatened about leaving a baseball game fearing potential violence, then something is fundamentally wrong.”
On the following day, the National Association for Gun Rights targeted the state’s governor and health secretary with a lawsuit, alleging that the suspension orders violated the Second Amendment.
By midweek, a federal judge responded by sanctioning a temporary restraining order on the firearms suspension, essentially blocking the segment of the order that prohibited public carrying of firearms.
An additional lawsuit was launched against Lujan Grisham and several other state functionaries by Randy Donk, a Bernalillo County inhabitant, and the Gun Owners of America. The claim compared the executive order and public health emergency proclamation to “martial law,” and contested that it served to suspend constitutional rights.
Within her revised public health order on Friday, Governor Lujan Grisham specified that residents of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County are forbidden to carry firearms in playgrounds or parks. Nevertheless, parks operated by the Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department or State Land Office are absolved.
The revision embodies much of the original order that was declared last week. Governor Lujan Grisham maintained, “I’m going to perpetuate pushing to assure that all of us are utilizing every resource available to confront and end this public health emergency with the urgency it merits,” she voiced in her statement, affirming, “I will not accept the status quo – enough is enough.”
The National Association for Gun Rights has been approached for a comment on the updated order, though a response has yet to be offered.