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Governor Grisham gives the game away, forcing some gun controllers to backpedal

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Law schools aren’t easy to get into and earning a law degree is a sign of intelligence. But a law degree provides no indication of the recipient’s sense of ethics, honesty, or wisdom, and in the case of elected officials, a respect for the U.S. Constitution and the founding principles of the country. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, who has a J.D. from the University of New Mexico Law School, confirmed that last week with her brazen attack on our right to keep and bear arms.

In case you missed it, Tom and Cam covered it over the weekend and detailed what’s in the order (archived links):

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday issued an emergency order suspending the right to carry firearms in public across Albuquerque and the surrounding county for at least 30 days in response to a spate of gun violence. […]

The firearms suspension, classified as an emergency public health order, applies to open and concealed carry in most public places, from city sidewalks to urban recreational parks. The restriction is tied to a threshold for violent crime rates currently only met by the metropolitan Albuquerque. Police and licensed security guards are exempt from the temporary ban.

Grisham knows it’s unconstitutional, and so do law enforcement officials in the affected area – Albuquerque police Chief Harold Medina, and Everytown-endorsed Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen, who are refusing to enforce it. Gov. Grisham doesn’t care:

The Democratic governor said she expects legal challenges but was compelled to act because of recent shootings, including the death of an 11-year-old boy outside a minor league baseball stadium this week.

Lujan Grisham said state police would be responsible for enforcing what amount to civil violations. Albuquerque police Chief Harold Medina said he won’t enforce it, and Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen said he’s uneasy about it because it raises too many questions about constitutional rights.

Other local elected officials – Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, and Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman – are also refusing to enforce the order, with the D.A. bluntly calling the Executive Order unconstitutional (archived links):

“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. “This office will continue to focus on criminals of any age that use guns in the commission of a crime.”

Grisham’s moves are too much even for gun control enthusiasts. Parkland opportunist David Hogg questioned it:

California Rep. Ted Lieu, a proponent of ineffective gun control, couldn’t stomach it either:

Former gun salesman Ryan Busse, who is now a gun control activist and Montana gubernatorial candidate, expressed the outrage necessary to make his candidacy viable in a state with 65% gun ownership:

Call me cynical, but these are strategic moves only to make themselves look reasonable in comparison to other actors, such as the Arizona House Democrats, Newtown Action Alliance’s Po Murray, or New Mexicans to Prevent “Gun Violence” whose responses can be seen below:

When – NOT if – the time comes and elected officials who claim to support the Second Amendment (looking squarely at Sen. John Cornyn) are again under political pressure, people like Ted Lieu, Ryan Busse, and David Hogg will pretend to be the reasonable ones who the likes of Cornyn can listen to and negotiate with to give away more of our rights. The pretenders’ rhetoric about caring for the Constitution must be treated with the utmost skepticism.

The deafening silence of gun control groups can’t be missed. They haven’t protested or said a word against the Executive Order. There’s a simple reason for that: they don’t believe that the people have a right to keep and bear arms. Banning guns, banning accessories, putting mere ownership under a discretionary licensing regime, depriving you of your First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights are all kosher to them if it’s done to destroy the Second Amendment.

Twitter user avsterbone found and shared a case (Bateman v. Perdue) involving the suspension of gun rights during an “emergency” in which the gun control group Brady submitted an amicus brief siding with the State:

The takeaway from the New Mexico Governor’s Executive Order is to treat both the Tweedledum and Tweedledee halves of the gun control movement the same, as those who would harm our liberties given the first available opportunity.

Opposition to Albuquerque order coming from odd places

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When New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a “public health emergency” for Albuquerque and unilaterally declared all carrying of firearms illegal for 30 days, I kind of figured a lot of gun control advocates would celebrate this.

After all, they too treat lawful gun owners as the problem rather than directing their ire toward those who got their guns illegally in the first place.

Yet, it seems that some of the usual suspects are doing something surprising.

They’re agreeing with us!

First, let’s look at David Hogg, who has been trying to position himself as a gun owner of late. We don’t buy it because we haven’t seen a single gun control bill he won’t support, but it seems that for the Hoggster, there is a line in the sand.

Now, if this was just David here, it would be a story, but it wouldn’t be the whole of the story. After all, he’s just one guy.

Yet even anti-gun Rep. Ted Lieu echoed the sentiment.

Now, both of these seem to follow a similar form. “I believe in gun safety but…”

It sounds an awful lot like, “I’m a gun owner but…” and that’s probably because, like your garden-variety Fudd, they need to remind people of their credentials. They’re both anti-gun crusaders, yet they feel like they need to speak out on this Albuquerque thing.

That brings up some interesting points of discussion.

First is, why?

Why would they decide to stand here and now, especially as I don’t recall either taking issue with some of the blatantly anti-gun things pushed during the pandemic lockdowns, much less any other actions that were unconstitutional? They were both relatively silent, as I recall.

Some are speculating that what we’re seeing isn’t opposition to the idea, only Grisham tipping their hands by doing too much, too soon.

I can’t rule that out.

Yet it may also be a concern that if Grisham gets away with this, it could have ramifications down the line. After all, imagine if a governor had decided during the lockdowns that there could be no protests at all due to the threat of COVID spreading. How could that have impacted the Black Lives Matter protests?

This touches on a second point of discussion, namely that both Hogg and Leiu note that the Albuquerque order is unconstitutional, acknowledging that the right to actually bear arms is protected by the Second Amendment.

Sure, they’re focused on the governor being the one to suspend the Constitution after declaring a public health emergency, particularly for Albuquerque, but in doing so they both acknowledge that concealed and open carry, at a minimum, are in fact protected by the Constitution itself.

I don’t know that they meant to, but that’s what we’re seeing here, even if they are following some kind of boilerplate tweet.

I suspect this may, in time, come back to bite them in their anti-gun butts, though I’m going to enjoy that all too much as well.

In the meantime, I think Gov. Grisham needs to rethink her order as even her allies aren’t standing with her on this one.

WATCH: Armed NM Gun Owners Rally in Defiance of Illegal Order, Lujan Grisham and Ted Lieu Spar

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Armed gun owners open and concealed carried at a rally in Albuquerque, NM, on Sunday as an act of civil disobedience against Gov. Micheel Lujan Grisham’s illegal order “suspending” gun rights in the city. 

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A large crowd gathered in Old Town in defiance of Lujan Grisham, leaving police with a choice on how to react.

In the end, no police intervened, and no one was arrested or cited with the $5,000 fine that the illegal order calls for. Albuquerque Police Department and the local Sheriff’s office had already indicated they would not be involved in any enforcement efforts. Notably, New Mexico State Police, which would have had ample time to respond, also did not make any arrests or give out any citations. Lujan Grisham had tasked them with enforcement as that’s the law enforcement department she has direct control over. 

The speaker at the rally encouraged those in attendance to demonstrate every day that the order was in place. A counter-protester was allowed to speak at one point but didn’t appear to convince anyone.

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It is unclear whether Lujan Grisham will take action to push for enforcement of her order going forward. She’s currently facing a lawsuit over her actions, and pressure on her move has gone national, with even Democrats voicing opposition. 

Lujan Grisham responded sarcastically to Rep. Ted Lieu’s response, claiming that she has total control over the laws of New Mexico and insinuating she can suspend them at any time. 

Democrat concerns over the order likely revolve around the possibility of litigation rising to level the Supreme Court. The striking down of Lujan Grisham’s order could result in the strong curtailing of emergency orders in general, a tool that Democrat politicians have come to rely on to push their policy preferences over the years. 

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Even putting aside the Constitution arguments, Lujan Grisham’s assertion that she has jurisdiction over gun laws and can thus void them at will seems to be a very weak legal argument. What other laws can she void if that’s the case? Time will tell how this plays out, but many Republicans are rightly hoping the issue isn’t mooted after 30 days. The implications of letting this order simply expire would be extremely concerning going forward. 

Hell Is Freezing Over: Ted Lieu Brings Sense After NM Gov’s Gun Order and Troubling Police Response

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As we reported earlier, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an order on Friday suspending open and concealed carry — the right to carry guns —  in public across Albuquerque and the surrounding Bernalillo County for at least 30 days. 

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Her excuse for doing away with the Second Amendment, when grilled by the press? She claimed she had powers in the event of an emergency and she was calling this a “public health order.”  Her response here is pretty crazy. 

No, you don’t get to suspend the Constitution for “emergencies.” If you could, Democrats would be coming up with emergencies all the time to take our rights away.  We’ve already seen what a bad road that can be with COVID, so they can’t try this here. But Lujan Grisham wasn’t letting the Constitution stop her. Her response was dangerously unhinged, thinking that she was justified in taking away rights to serve her political agenda, meanwhile endangering all those people by doing so, in a climate she claimed was “out of control.”

Not only did she say her oath to the Consitution wasn’t absolute, but she also acknowledged that criminals weren’t likely to abide by the executive order. 

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But she still claimed that it was a “strong message.” Yes, it’s a message that she’s not interested in going after the criminals, that she’s trying to curb the rights of the law-abiding. 

So what about the law enforcement response to this unconstitutional order? When an official takes such a position antithetical to the Constitution, law enforcement are the ones who need to be standing up to her and saying no; indeed, not only not supporting her but telling her that she is acting against the Constitution. 

Here’s what the two law enforcement heads of the police agencies said. 

Translation: The state police are going to be enforcing her civil edict, not us. But nowhere does he say it’s wrong or condemn it. 

Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen’s response was a little better; at least he said he had reservations. 

This move has been positioned as a response to the alarming and tragic rise in gun violence, particularly the heart-wrenching death of an 11-year-old boy this past week. First and foremost, every lost life is a tragedy, and the well-being of our community is of paramount concern to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office. We share in the collective grief and urgency to address this issue.

However, as the elected Sheriff, I have reservations regarding this order. While I understand and appreciate the urgency, the temporary ban challenges the foundation of our Constitution, which I swore an oath to uphold. I am wary of placing my deputies in positions that could lead to civil liability conflicts, as well as the potential risks posed by prohibiting law-abiding citizens from their constitutional right to self-defense.

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But he went on to say he was committed to working with Lujan Grisham. Some interpreted that as a polite “no.” Maybe. But there wasn’t any “no” in there, just “reservations.” It should be a lot stronger than that and when you don’t say that, you’re not fully upholding your oath. 

Plus, both of those guys were sitting there with her when she issued the order saying that they were committed to working with her, even though they might have different thoughts. I get having to work for her. But you shouldn’t be sitting at a table with her when she is coming out with something so wrong. 

That’s troubling that they aren’t stronger on the issue. 

How crazy is this situation? When even Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) calls you out the tyranny and is the voice of sanity in a situation, you know how truly messed up things are. 

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Hell may just be freezing because I’m about to say those words I never thought I would: Ted Lieu is right. It’s that simple, and it’s more than a little disturbing that Lujan Grisham, as well as some of the people around her, can’t put out that simple statement.