New Mexico Governor Suspends Open And Concealed Carry Of Firearms
As the potential return of mask mandates looms over free society like the sword of Damocles, we are reminded of the logical inconsistencies and far-reaching infringements against constitutional rights that the medical technocrats behind them just a few years ago have sought to memory hole. Politicians nationwide at every tier of government demonstrated wanton abandonment for their adherence to constitutions at the state and federal levels by decreeing supposed public health emergencies to skirt their constraints. In doing so, violations of citizens' rights to free assembly were trampled upon as if they bore the name Mufasa, creating a line of demarcation in a free society between proponents of individual sovereignty and opposition to it fledged from sycophants to tyranny.
A DC area elementary school — Montgomery County, Maryland — is reinstating a mask mandate — N95’s — for third graders over a few kids testing positive for covid. Here’s the letter. They’re coming with masks for your kids again. Get ready. Read this insanity. pic.twitter.com/LZs4N19XLL
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 5, 2023
The latest reminder of the nonsensical logic and unconstitutional over-reach of politicians under the premise of acting in the interest of public health comes from New Mexico, where the governor the state has used that pretense to suspend the rights of citizens to carry firearms. In reaction to a spate of gun violence across the state, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham suspended the right to carry firearms across Albuquerque and the whole of Bernalillo County that it rests within. The emergency order is set to last for at least 30 days, an indeterminate time frame reminiscent of the empty promise of mandates meant to last "2 weeks to flatten the curve" from 2020.
Any violation of the emergency order would amount to civil but not criminal penalties according to the governor's office. The order requires any firearms being privately transported to have a trigger lock or other mechanism to prevent them from discharging. Those in violation of the emergency order would face a fine of up to $5,000 if they are found to be in possession of a firearm in public with the exception of transporting one to a secure location such as a gun range.
However, the enforcement of that moratorium has been met with immediate resistance. Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen responded to the decree by announcing he and his office will not enforce the governor's order given the constitutional violations it effectuates. “While I understand and appreciate the urgency, the temporary ban challenges the foundation of our constitution, which I swore an oath to uphold,” Allen said, continuing “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.”
Lujan Grisham acknowledged the reticence of law enforcement officials tasked with enforcing the order when the governor formally announced the measure. However, their feedback was met with blatant disregard as she sought to justify the dictate by concocting a pseudo-scientific axiom that would flatter the Coronavirus Taskforce led by Anthony Fauci, Deborah Birx, et al. at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic during the Trump Administration.
Instead of epidemiological data, the Governor of New Mexico set forth statistical parameters measuring violent crime that would qualify the emergency order to be imposed upon urban areas and even entire counties. While this makes the parameters for a statewide ban on concealed or open-carry firearms unlikely, it conveys a continued technocratic approach to policy making in which statistics can be manipulated to impose the will of legislators that circumvents the democratic avenues they are meant to operate within, making truly scientific conjecture about flaws in their methodology or validity tantamount to heresy.
Lujan Grisham pulled a page out of the proverbial Edward Bernays bible on propaganda by defending her mandate using a pathological and not logical argument by highlighting shooting tragedies across the Albuquerque area. Those instances included the fatal shooting of a 5-year-old who was shot as she laid asleep after 4 teenagers opened fire in the mobile home community she lived in during their theft of 2 vehicles from the premises. An 11-year-old killed during a suspected road rage incident outside of a minor league baseball stadium also had the tragedy of their murder shamelessly exploited by the governor to justify her unconstitutional dictate.
Lujan Grisham's most recent emergency order is not the first instance in which she has targeted law-abiding citizen's 2nd Amendment rights. In 2020, the governor implemented far-reaching red flag laws that allowed police to confiscate firearms from citizens. The order she issued Friday will also coordinate a statewide dragnet of monthly inspections of gun retailers across New Mexico to ensure their compliance with existing fire arms regulations under state and federal law.
As new mandates and public health orders slowly matriculate across the United States, they will serve as a litmus test to the resistance fomented during the events of 2020. With the government establishment across the country entering into an election cycle in which their hegemony will inevitably be challenged once again, the potential of restrictions put into place to ensure they can maintain their iron-first grasp over the populous seems like less of a possibility and more of an inevitability. The only unknown appears to be whether or not the public as large has already had enough and will honor the commitment they made in the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic to stand against tyranny or if the vitriol vocalized against it was nothing more than the boisterous cry of an empty promise.
