It’s one thing to be a budding authoritarian who doesn’t care about violating state law and individuals’ civil rights. It’s another thing to be an inept, incompetent authoritarian. For that, we call all be thankful for New Mexico’s Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Grisham isn’t just your run-of-the-mill anti-gun Democrat politician. She’s also a bumbling fool who — we can all be grateful — is terrible at her job and clueless as to how the laws and constitutions of New Mexico and and the United States work.
Think about it for a minute. If you were in a position of power as she is and you were contemplating taking a radical, unprecedented step to demonstrate how deeply concerned you are about “gun violence” in your state, you’d do a few things before going public with your plan.
Since every apparatus of state and local government in New Mexico is occupied and controlled by Democrats, you don’t really have to worry about partisan sniping. But you’d want to make sure you have your legal ducks in a row while also shoring up support from the legislative branch. Wouldn’t you?
Your first call should probably be to the state’s Attorney General to make sure he’ll support you, not only in your declaration of a “gun violence” public health emergency, but also in your more ambitious executive order suspending an important part of a lot of New Mexicans’ Second Amendment rights.
You’d also want to get the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tem of the Senate on the blower. They’re Democrats, too, so you know they’re naturally predisposed limiting gun rights, but you want to make sure they’re on board with a big step like this and will keep their troops in line and behind you (or, at a minimum, quiet).
Governor Grisham, however, apparently did…none of those things. After news broke of an 11-year-old being shot and killed in a road rage incident as he left a baseball game in Albuquerque, she apparently flipped out and gave in to all of her worst anti-gun instincts.
She declared the “public health emergency” and then banned open and concealed carry in the state’s largest county including the most populous city. All on her own. Without buy-in or political support from anyone else in state government.
It didn’t take long before the inevitable blowback was felt after that kind of unprecidented overreach. And it wasn’t coming from the other party. Almost half of New Mexicans own guns. That means that even in a Democrat-dominated state, slashing gun rights and limiting individuals’ ability to defend themselves by executive fiat is going to get a lot of people upset.
Sure enough, the flak coming at Grisham was being launched from members of both parties. The mayor of Albuquerque and the city’s police chief quickly announced that they wouldn’t enforce her order. So did the Bernalillo County Sheriff. Democrats in the legislature called on the Her Imperious Highness to rescind the order.
These people aren’t stupid. They new that their qualified immunity had been taken away in during the post-Floyd furies back in 2021. They also knew that this kind of authoritarian high-handedness where people’s gun rights are limited feeds into all of the worst fears of a lot of gun owners.
If the state’s Democrats ever hoped to enact other gun control laws some day — say an “assault weapons” ban — Grisham’s edict would make that damn-near impossible for years.
As Democrat Senator Joseph Cervantes eloquently put it . . .
Having passed key gun safety laws working with her administration, I call on the Governor to rescind her order outlawing arms. An unconstitutional approach undermines the important collaboration gun issues deserve, and the important role of a Governor to lead genuine reforms.
In other words, thanks for nothing, Governor Karen. You’ve just set the cause of gun control back a decade in a solidly Democrat-controlled state.
Some of the loudest and most reliable anti-gun voices like David Hogg, Ryan Busse, and Ted Lieu publicly criticized the Grisham power-grab as clearly unconstitutional. Six New Mexico House members sent a letter to Her Highness, asking her to undo the damage.
We concur with law enforcement leaders that these executive orders violate law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment rights and would require law enforcement officers to infringe upon these rights, which could expose officers, police agencies, and communities to civil litigation. We agree that the Governor does not have the authority to disregard both the New Mexico Constitution and the U.S. Constitution and to create law without action from the New Mexico Legislature.
The biggest body blow to Grisham’s hoplophobic dreams, however, came from New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez when he told her that he won’t defend her against the half dozen lawsuits that resulted from her executive order.
Though I recognize my statutory obligation as New Mexico’s chief legal officer to defend state officials when they are sued in their official capacity, my duty to uphold and defend the constitutional rights of every citizen takes precedence,” Torrez’s letter stated. “Simply put, I do not believe that the Emergency Order will have any meaningful impact on public safety but, more importantly, I do not believe it passes constitutional muster.
You don’t say.
Yesterday, after arguments in a hearing for a temporary restraining order blocking the Governor’s order where heard, District Court Judge David Urias — a Biden appointee — concluded that the plaintiffs have excellent prospects for succeeding on the merits when the cases are fully heard and issued an order shutting down the Governor’s carry ban.
Grisham, who had criticized law enforcement officers for refusing to carry out her clearly unconstitutional edict, reacted to the order pretty much as you’d expect.
Today a judge temporarily blocked sections of our public health order but recognized the significant problem of gun violence in this state. I refuse to be resigned to the status quo, and I will never stop fighting to prevent other families from enduring these tragedies. pic.twitter.com/qRfSCUaNIL
— Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (@GovMLG) September 13, 2023
When you lose the local media, members of your own party, your Attorney General, prominent anti-gun advocates, and even the the biggest gun control operations in the country refuse to speak up on your behalf, that should be a clue that you’ve gone way too far.
Declaring a bogus “health emergency” and then using that as a pretext to ban the free exercise of an enumerated civil right is something even the Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex isn’t willing to get behind (publicly, at least).
This was a blunder so big it took the paid flaks at Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun agitprop outlet The Trace a few days, but even they finally found a laughably gentle way to tell Grisham that she’d f@cked up on a galactic scale, calling her order . . .
A bold move to curtail gun violence in Albuquerque has gotten a lot of attention, but less controversial solutions hold more promise.
In the mean time, while her order was a gun control and public relations disaster, the power-hungry Governor succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams in uniting the gun rights community. A couple of hundred New Mexicans showed up over the weekend in an Albuquerque park — almost all of them armed — to protest the order and, in effect, tell Governor Karen to come and take them. The protest was peaceful (of course) and no one attempted to enforce the Governor’s illegal suspension of their Second Amendment carry rights.
Grisham’s given gun owners around the country a very high-profile example of what power-hungry politicians are all-too-willing to do in the name of “public safety.” A Governor just tried to shut down gun owners’ Second Amendment rights in contravention of her state’s laws, its constitution and the US Constitution. And as she admitted herself, the order would do nothing to stop criminals and would only really affect law-abiding gun owners.
The next time Gavin Newsom, Kathy Hochul, Phil Murphy and others laughably claim that no one wants to take away their guns and say they respect gun owners’ Second Amendment rights, the first thing millions of Americans — and not all of them gun owners — will think of going forward is how Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham broke the law and tried to take away those rights.
As the media have noticed, Grisham has committed one of the worst mortal sins . . .
That kind of overreach is a gift to Republicans who want to convince voters that Democrats want to take away your guns.
In other words Governor Grisham, in her desire to exercise executive power, has done some serious damage to the cause of gun control in America. She’ll never admit it, but it’s backfired badly in ways she never expected.
There are still Democrat-dominated states that will continue to do everything possible to make manufacturing, selling, and owning firearms as expensive and difficult as possible. That likely won’t ever change. But more Americans just got an object lesson in what anti-gun politicians truly want and would dearly love to do…if the courts and the Constitution weren’t standing in their way.
For that, we should be grateful.
I’ve been saying this for a long time. People like biden, grisham, miner49er and dacian are practically winning our fight for us. And the great thing is they’re too damn dumb to see it.
It is incredible. They can’t see what is so obvious.
In the era of automation, there’s few things more beautiful than witnessing the trash take itself out.
PERFECTLY STATED !!!
“In the era of automation, there’s few things more beautiful than witnessing the trash take itself out.”
True, but I’d prefer they use the method of self (or assisted, I really don’t care) immolation…
*snicker* 😉
While you are correct, she is doing this because a large enough segment of the population, almost all of it on the Democrat side, agree with her, and not just about guns; they agree with her about the Constitution being “not absolute”, rights not being absolute, and governors’ oath of office being just a loose guideline. She also wasn’t the first to do this sort of thing: NJ’s Gov Phil Murphy closed down gun stores and ranges (even outdoor ones), as well as places of worship, in the name of a public health emergency, COVID. When asked about the constitutionality of his actions, he was a bit less brazen than Gov Karen, instead he said that constitutional considerations were “above his paygrade”.
After it’s all said and done and the chickens have come home to roost…
1) The Second Amendment is one thing…governor.
2) The criminal misuse of firearms, bricks, bats, fists, feet, knives, vehicles, etc. is another thing…governor.
3) History Confirms Gun Control in any shape, matter or form is a racist and nazi based Thing…governor.
DebbieW, arms control predates the Nazi’s.
DW
Possum wrote:
“DebbieW, arms control predates the Nazi’s.”
By literally THOUSANDS of years…
“Some of the loudest and most reliable anti-gun voices like David Hogg, Ryan Busse, and Ted Lieu publicly criticized the Grisham power-grab as clearly unconstitutional.”
The tide really is turning, they are finally, *publicly* admitting that the everyday person has a RIGHT to own and carry a loaded gun in public.
That really is huge, and about damn time… 🙂
GPR,
No, they are just mouthing the words.
They will NEVER back away from the complete disarmament of the law abiding US population..
I really don’t think they’re saying the “everyday person has a Right to own and carry a loaded gun in public.” Rather they’re saying you can’t take it away all at once, it looks bad. You have to be insidious in your dealings with rights advocates, not forthright and you certainly can’t remove a right from the elites! Outrageous taxes are great, allowing lawsuits against the manufacturers and dealers is great, etc. but don’t ever show the endgame up front.
Oh, I still trust them roughly as far as I can throw them…
You should be old for your ‘s’— to be flushed down the toilet and kept out of our offices and living rooms!
New Mexico Court VICTORY and ANALYSIS! Gun Owners of America, FPC, SAF Lawsuits PLUS Court Order.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX7OetXXACs
It ain’t over till it is over. Murphy’s Law. Devious leftist creeps, going who knows where…
Just saying.
that’s true, a step at a time.
We can tell the politicians of both parties how to deal with and reduce violent crime, but they won’t do it. Because it would close the door on their demands for disarmament and more government authority to micromanage the lives of the peasants.
Identify and arrest those who commit the violent crimes, prosecute and convict them and lock them up for their entire sentence, or in cases of multiple or premeditated murder or rape/murder cases eliminate the perpetrators from the gene pool completely.
Have actual consequences for lesser felonies and stop promoting the behaviors that lead to criminal acts.
Of course doing so would require actually supporting law enforcement, weeding out the less effective or dishonest LEO’s, forcing people to be more responsible for their choices and actions, and holding both the public and the politicians responsible for their failed policies. Toss in the requirement of getting schools back in the business of educating and not indoctrination, and the media to actually limit news reporting to facts and honest reporting instead of following the narrative and regurgitating the latest crap from the politicians.
Hey, I can dream can’t I.
Lessons that refused to be learned
China micromanaged the live of their citizens. It resulted in a demographic distortion that will reduce their population by more than 200 million, perhaps by more than 300 million, by the end of the next decade.
Russia is experiencing a shrinking population. One of the reasons they wanted Ukraine to rejoin the union was to gain 65 million more people.
I don’t care a out that, all I want to know is when she is going to be cast in a pornographic movie, what the name of it is, and where can I purchase it.
D Damn, she’s hotter then Hillary Clinton.
I just puked and I can’t un-see the image that conjured.
“…all I want to know is when she is going to be cast in a pornographic movie, what the name of it is, and where can I purchase it.”
Purchase, hell. I’ll just download it from one of many porn sites that carry those celebrity fuck films, like Paris Hilton’s video… 🙂
“There are still Democrat-dominated states that will continue to do everything possible to make manufacturing, selling, and owning firearms as expensive and difficult as possible. That likely won’t ever change.”
Sad but oh so true. California has passed SB2, a “me too” version of the CCW restrictions enacted in NYS and NJ (and a few other places) to make carrying a concealed firearm (open carry being illegal) nearly impossible, thumbing their collective noses at the Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling, plus imposing new training requirements, a background check of one’s “moral character” and increased fees. The $1 fee for an automatic state background check required to purchase ammo is set to go up as well. To add to that, the Legislature has passed an 11% excise tax an all firearms and ammunition sales, on top of the federal tax, sales taxes of between 7.25 and 9.5%, and a $37 DROS charge for the background check and the finding of “gun violence research.” They are working on a new bill to force microstamping in 2027 after the State AG Bonta failed to appeal an injunction against that portion of the California Roster (because the existing requirements cannot be met).
Is moral character a reason to suspend rights? If so I’d like to nominate some very unmoral folks to have all their rights suspended.
For the red states that can make their own laws, not a bad time to codify the lack of ability for “emergency powers” to undermine civil liberties. Case law will hopefully support such legislation rather soon.
bottom line….it’s an emergency because she says i’ts an emergency….that criteria needs to be more clearly codified…in short…some changes need to be made to prevent this sort of thing in the future…especially in light of their newly installed civil liability…this was an utterly stupid and arrogant decision that people in authority are running away from…and for good reason…
Remember when the people in New Orleans had their guns confiscated by the sheriff’s office along with national guard at gunpoint. They has to sue to get some of them back after being stored in cardboard drums inside storage containers. Most were rusted away. Family heirlooms destroyed. A lot were never returned. All this in the of public safety. Law enforcement was found stealing guns and committing crimes with them. All this spurred states across the country to make it illegal to take firearms from citizens during declared emergencies. New Mexico LE was on our side this time.
The problem with cops and laws is that cops aren’t required to know the law. If they’re told to go take the guns, at gunpoint if necessary, that’s what they’ll do in most places. The only reason Grisham’s edict wasn’t enforced was because the dumb ass democrats took away everyone’s immunity after the BLM riots. I love to see them bit by their own stupidity!
In visiting with some NM contacts, there’s another aspect that helps explain Grisham’s authoritarian behavior.
New Mexico politics is notoriously dirty and corrupt, and has been since . . . well, forever. There are four or five families (who often intermarry) who have been the big landowners / local power brokers in the area going back to Spanish colonial days (where you had a few rich Spaniards and lots of peons). They and their political machines have always dominated New Mexico politics (and many aspects of the state’s economic activity).
One of these is the Lujan family . . . which Grisham is part of.
These people quite literally view themselves as the ruling aristocracy, who by birthright can do anything they want — especially order the peons around “for their own good.”
“These people quite literally view themselves as the ruling aristocracy, who by birthright can do anything they want — especially order the peons around “for their own good.””
That makes publicly-humiliating them with a brutal legal slap-down all the *sweeter*… 🙂
The Hapsburg family of New Mexico?
With all that inbreeding no wonder they are princes among kings.
Long ago some wise guy said not to interfere when your enemy is doing something stupid.
She jumped the gun so badly even her supporters couldn’t save her
Napoleon Bonaparte said it. Unfortunately for him, he forgot it later in Russia and at Waterloo.
tfw its a biden judge that granted the tro…
lol
theres no way to not love it
we dont have to own the libs
not if theyre going to keep owning themselves
so we got that going for us
which is nice
“She’s also a bumbling fool…”
1. She outted the LE agencies as being the mindless, kneejerk gun nuts that they are
2. She radicalized the anti-gun movement by first establishing the lockdown, and creating talking points for the Dims in Arizona
3. Even if she loses (which she has, momentarily), she gains approval for being willing to challenge the oppressive, reckless, bigoted, dangerous, some other names, death cult called gunowners.
Or, something.
Ironically the New Mexico state police have remained oddly silent on the issue. I believe her protection falls under their jurisdiction.
“Ironically the New Mexico state police have remained oddly silent on the issue. I believe her protection falls under their jurisdiction.”
Silence from a government LE agency is never a good thing.
The criticism coming from the left about this EO is not because they believe in the 2A. The criticism is because the NM governor went ape-shit and blew their cover.
California, NY, NJ, Illinois, Hawaii, Maryland, Washington, etc. – all these states are defying Bruen, just like they defied Heller and McDonald, and they’re all in court over it. They just haven’t been as bold as NM. And, yes, you might find a (D)-appointed judge who does the proper thing now.
Who’s naïve to think any of these these jerks would behave the same way with a SCOTUS 5-4 leftist advantage? You think Hoggface would be screaming “muh 2A Rights!” on Twitter?
These people are incorrigible and incompatible with America. What they’d do if they could is scary as hell. Not enough people get it. I don’t know what it will take. Civil war? 500 years of tyranny? Anything? I check the history books and how many places do I see in human history like America. Oh yeah. America. Tyranny is the norm. We are the exception, and yet half the country hates us for it because they can’t keep their other half under their boot.
to the left “control” is like an addictive drug…they simply can’t get enough of it….
I believe that the new political norm these days is that Democrats can do whatever they want if they have the majority in all three branches of state or federal government. That being the case, Governor Grisham was all too happy to take advantage of this new norm and declare anything that she wanted. After all, what was/is the worst that can happen? Maybe a court order puts her declaration on-hold? Big deal (as far as Governor Grisham is concerned).
And Governor Grisham gets to check another square in her “win” column even if a court blocks her edict: she is moving the Overton Window on civilian disarmament even farther to the left.
She drove the first nail in the coffin of Liberals using a Public Health emergency to subvert Constitutional Rights. As well as blaming mental illness for the crimes committed by violent criminals. Next nail begins Monday, when the Safety Act becomes law in Illinois.
Darkman,
“She drove the first nail in the coffin of Liberals using a Public Health emergency to subvert Constitutional Rights.”
That tactic worked exceptionally well (probably beyond the wildest imaginations of Democrats) when COVID-19 entered the scene. Remember, Democrats (and some Republicans?) issued emergency public health orders which included ordering churches to stop services and close their doors–something that the U.S. Constitution First Amendment explicitly prohibits. If emergency public health orders can shut down something as sacrosanct as the free exercise of religion, quite literally everything is on the chopping block.
Note: not a single politician, bureaucrat, or government employee has faced any civil, monetary, or criminal sanctions for issuing and/or enforcing public health emergency orders that denied our fundamental rights explicitly stated in the U.S. Constitution or state constitutions. Why wouldn’t the Ruling Class keep issuing such emergency public health orders?
“After all, what was/is the worst that can happen?”
This is the entire problem. There is no penalty for elected officials that violate the civil rights of their citizens.
If one constitutionally protected right can be suspended for stupid reasons, I guess they can all be suspended for stupid reasons.
Maybe we can take a page from Grisham’s playbook and suspend the 19th amendment during a “constitutional crisis”?
New Mexico voted for this now live with it.
Her days as governor are thankfully numbered. She doesn’t know it, but she’s done a great service to the cause of gun rights.
Is she really a fool? Could this all be a planned diversion to work up the Progressives and to divert attention away from Hunter, border, economy, corruption, etc. …
I never agreed with that argument — not that I’m criticizing you, Maga, for bringing it up.
How would anyone think that one story detracts our attention from other stories? As humans, we’re innately able to “multi-task.”
Anyone who comes to an aggregator site that discusses various topics, usually reads several articles and comments on many threads — not just one. To really date myself — it would be like reading a single story in a newspaper and then throwing the rest in the trash. (Which in some cases, is a good idea, actually.)
She’s not a fool. She’s a tyrant, and there’s a difference.
But this isn’t a “diversion” either. Think of it as an inoculation against the liberty virus. It’s meant to get people used to the idea that this is normal and acceptable.
“…clueless as to how the laws and constitutions of New Mexico and and the United States work.”
i beg to differ. i think you spelled “well aware” wrong.
Thanks tyrant for validating the 2A is, ya know, kinda absolute after all.
TEACH HER Seppuku (切腹 AND SHE MUST PRACTICE UNTIL SHE GETS IT RIGHT!
She’ll need a kaishakunin — only one stroke is allowed.
They said the same thing about Obama when he proposed Obamacare. And he ultimately got his way. The Left always over-reaches, and usually wins in the end. We’ll see.
“They said the same thing about Obama ”
Yup. The Overton Window opens, and lets in the stench of killing fields rot.
Stop thinking this is stupidity, folks. This is deliberate evil.
I agree wholeheartedly with this article, but it pains me when I see writers on the Right put together sentences like the third one in, and don’t proofread well enough to catch ‘new’ standing in for ‘knew’.
Painful. Think of your readers, please.
And yet, you New Mexicans voted her into office.
Just like I’m stuck, here in PA, with Shapiro as Governor, Bobby, Jr as senior senator and John “Shotgun” Fetterman as junior senator, neither of whom I voted for.
And yet, New Mexicans voted her into office.
Wouldn’t surprise me to learn the Democrats stole the election that put her in to office. I say this although NM is typically a blue state.
She’s such a tyrannical Karen that she even has the Karen haircut.
The Karen haircut that screams “I want to speak to your manager!” elitism.
She looks like the type who talks down to waitresses, waiters, busboys, and other working-class people and gets them fired by demanding “I want to speak to your manager!” followed by an elitist, “Do you know who I am? I’m the governor. I’ll make sure you never work in this town again!”
Her tyrannical actions last week proved that Karen haircut fits her personality like a glove.
I suggest everyone on TTAG click on that link to her Twitter posts and reply to her tyrannical tweets with some Truth.
The New Mexico voters probably did NOT vote her into office, and as to “people realizing how wrong she is, and how unConstitutional her order was”, many on the Left will not know that, as they do not get reports which would tell them, and they would not believe such reports if the did see them.
The active Left are true believers.
No facts can change their minds, no more than our civilized standards can change the thoughts and behavior of a jihadi terrorist.
I used to think otherwise, but I have come to believe that we face the same problems and solution sets with both.
I knew the US was pretty well phucked when they started letting individuals use the Quran to be sworn into CONGRESS..
Too many comments here accusing Gresham of being stupid or ignorant.
No, she’s not.
Tell it, Jordan Peterson: “Tyranny is the grip of the lie.”
For Gesham, a tyrant, reality is what she says it is, by definition.
Two plus two equals shut up, proles, and think what you’re told.
We are seeing the Overton window in action.
Gresham is not stupid or ignorant unless she is shut down, thrown out, and locked up. Anything short of that, yes, all three points, she, and her fellow controllers, win.
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