A gun-rights group filed a lawsuit against Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) after she suspended the right to carry firearms in public across and around Albuquerque and declared gun violence a public health emergency.
The National Association for Gun Rights and Foster Haines, a member who lives in Albuquerque, sued the state on Saturday, arguing the order violates New Mexico residents’ Second Amendment rights and cited the Supreme Court ruling from last year, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which said firearm restrictions must be “consistent with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
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“The State must justify the Carry Prohibition by demonstrating that it is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,” the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in New Mexico reads. “But it is impossible for the State to meet this burden, because there is no such historical tradition of firearms regulation in this Nation.”
The governor, a Democrat, has received a flood of backlash for the 30-day suspension from across party lines.
Democratic California state Rep. Ted Lieu questioned the constitutionality of the New Mexico governor’s order on Saturday, writing on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, “I support gun safety laws. However, this order from the Governor of New Mexico violates the U.S. Constitution. No state in the union can suspend the federal Constitution. There is no such thing as a state public health emergency exception to the U.S. Constitution.”
Presidential candidates Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy also cited the violation of the Second Amendment, with the latter Republican telling Grisham to “focus on sealing your own state’s southern border.”
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Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, a former Democratic Party leader, said on Saturday that he “cannot and will not enforce something that is clearly unconstitutional.”
The emergency order came after an 11-year-old, Froyland Villegas, was shot and killed in a suspected road rage-related shooting Wednesday.
