Briefly Noted: New Mexico Suspension Of Constitution Continues To Backfire
A federal court wasted absolutely no time at all in slapping a temporary restraining order on goofball governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s idiotic “health emergency” executive order. To refresh your recollection …
Well, [that] didn't take long. A federal court put a stop to Gov. Grisham's knowingly unconstitutional suspension of gun rights. https://foxnews.com/politics/new-mexico-democrat-governors-sweeping-gun-order-hits-major-temporary-roadblock… Grisham demonstrated an open contempt for the constitution in taking this action despite her oath.
Grisham declared that neither constitutional rights nor her oath is absolute. However, she knew that she was violating the Constitution and decided that she had discretion to suspend the protected rights of her citizens.
One supposes that the federal judge in question—Judge David Urias, a Zhou judge and member of the NM ACLU—was unimpressed with Grisham’s claim that neither her oath to uphold the Constitution nor the rights enshrined therein are absolute. According to Bonchie at Red State, the judge was probably also negatively impressed when Grisham’s lawyer ”raised her voice” in responding to the judge—Grisham had to find her own lawyer because the NM AG refused to represent Grisham, a vote of no confidence in her EO:
Lujan Grisham's Illegal Gun Order Gets Wrecked by Judge, Injunction Now in Place
According to reports, the governor's lawyer started to get noticeably animated in the courtroom at one point and likely didn't help Lujan Grisham's case.
Apparently Grisham had been hoping that her 30 day EO would expire before the judiciary took any action, but that hope was dashed. It appears to me that the judge’s action raises the chances that a negative substantive ruling will follow.
Zerohedge has some pretty thorough coverage of this case, and among other things points out some relevant facts on the ground in NM:
After several road rage cases claimed the lives of children this summer, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham suspended the open and concealed carry of firearms in Albuquerque and throughout Bernalillo County for the next 30 days. Grisham’s response will not make New Mexicans safer. Indeed, the opposite is true.
None of the attacks that Grisham can point to involved permit holders. That’s not too surprising – permit holders in New Mexico and the rest of the country are exceptionally law-abiding. In 2021, there was just one revocation for every 45,000 permit holders in New Mexico. Nor was that an outlier. In 2019 and 2020, there were no revocations.
For criminals, it is already illegal to carry guns. All Grisham’s edict does is make it illegal for law-abiding citizens to carry.
Academic research shows that police are the most important factor in reducing crime. However, the police understand that they virtually always arrive at the crime scene after the crime occurs, as one recent road rage incident illustrates. At the end of August, a law-abiding citizen with a permit used his gun to protect himself from a road rage attack near Isleta Pueblo, New Mexico.
The Albuquerque police department doesn’t have enough officers to answer every call for help. Police Chief Harold Medina acknowledges that Albuquerque ranks at the bottom of cities in police officers per capita. And by the end of 2021, Albuquerque had only 70% of the number of police officers that it should have. When the police cannot protect people, the solution is not to disarm law-abiding citizens.
Albuquerque’s murder rate has soared by 70% while Grisham has been governor. But instead of addressing the problems created by Democrats’ attitudes toward law enforcement, Grisham blames the crime surge on law-abiding gun owners.
There are now over 22 million concealed handgun permit holders nationwide, and we have decades of data on the behavior of permit holders. Some other states have especially detailed data. In Florida and Texas, permit holders are convicted of firearms-related violations at one-twelfth the rate at which police officers are. And police are convicted at just one-twentieth of the rate for the general population at large.
The average concealed carry permit revocation rate in the 19 states with comprehensive data is one-tenth of one percent. Usually, revocations occur because someone moves, dies, or forgets to bring the permit while carrying.
What’s really notable, and took me by surprise, is the way the Left has backpedaled away from Grisham. In fact, the Left has pretty much turned and run in the opposite direction. Gun ownership in NM runs at something like 46%, so Grisham’s goofy EO seems rather unsmart. Perhaps the reason the Left dropped her like a hot potato is because these kinds of actions will ensure that gun owners get out and vote at the next opportunity—which, for most of them, will be in November, 2024.
Will Grisham have a comeback to this setback?
New Mexico Governor Suspends First Amendment To Silence Criticism Over Suspending Second Amendment https://buff.ly/469kJH5
As a resident of America's hat (Canada), I may not be up on all of the subtle nuances of this imbroglio (I hoped I used that word correctly) but when I read the quote below in this piece:
"After several road rage cases claimed the lives of children this summer"
I immediately thought those poor children had been run down by a car. Which, on further thought, would equally qualify as a health emergency surely? Talk about saving the planet! A savvy governor could use this to help save the planet and ban private automobile use for 30 days as well! :)
If it saves one child...
Cheers
To quote the unflappable Bugs Bunny, " What a Maroon!"