New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham
(Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

By Rob Morse

What do you do when bad political decisions get set into dogma? If you’re a Democrat politician, then you ignore the facts and blame the people that your donors love to hate. That’s exactly what we saw play out as a result of the violence in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

To start, violent crime has been surging in Albuquerque for years. The first rule of politics is that you can’t appear powerless or irrelevant. Political reality, though, rears its head and even the governor is precluded from doing what works to reduce crime. So why did the Governor ban honest gun owners from carrying in Albuquerque?

It must be sad to be Democrat Governor Michelle Grisham.

The obvious response would have been to arrest violent inner-city criminals and gang-members who break the law. Unfortunately, Democrat talking points claim that unequally applied law enforcement is a root cause of the violence rather than one of the solutions.

Democrats are supported by an urban voter base so they can’t arrest these violent criminals and risk alienating a core demographic. Democrats had a narrow urban base of support in 2020, and Covid allowed millions of us to leave the city and work remotely.

Hapless Governor Grisham can’t blame the victims and claim they shouldn’t hang out at the wrong clubs late at night or call it the wrong place at the wrong time. Most of the victims are inner-city residents. Many are immigrant minorities. Democrats can’t afford to alienate these voting blocks either. The most recent victims that triggered the Governor’s power-grab were young children including an 11-year-old boy who was reportedly shot during a road rage incident.

The Governor didn’t think she could blame the economy and the lack of employment opportunities since Democrats own the White House, the US Senate, and control law all of the branches of New Mexico government. She couldn’t blame open borders and unchecked illegal immigration for driving down the average wage. The slipping job market isn’t a winning issue since it’s a problem created by the Governor’s own party (see: New York Mayor Eric Adams).

Grisham didn’t dare blame parents or schools. Democrats have led the charge in saying that parental arrangements are all the same. Some have even said that fewer parents in the home could be better than the intact, married, two-parent family since broken families leave more room for social workers and teachers to “fix” any bad beliefs that may be held. Given the donations of teachers unions to the Democrat party, Grisham certainly couldn’t blame teachers.

That means New Mexico’s Governor lives in a political house of mirrors where all past vices now point right back at her. She was out of political options, so she blamed the inanimate objects, guns.

Except that doesn’t really hold up to even the most cursory examination.

Violent crime is localized to failed Democrat controlled cities while legally-owned firearms are ubiquitous. Licensed concealed carriers are more law abiding than the police. By a huge factor, licensed concealed carry holders stop more violent crimes than they cause. Grisham  depended on a complicit news media to bury those facts for her. While that works most of the time, it doesn’t work all the time and the blowback this week came fast and furious.

Grisham’s executive order to disarm honest citizens wouldn’t have actually reduced violent crime. She admitted that. It was intended to provide cover for failed Democrats and get more campaign donations from anti-rights billionaires like Michael Bloomberg.

We’ve seen how cities become uninhabitable when criminals aren’t prosecuted. San Francisco and Seattle are some of the fastest shrinking cities in the US. Cities are shockingly dangerous when you don’t raise children in an intact family. Yes, a village can raise a child, but they do it badly and feral children become dangerous adults. There’s no substitute for two parents, and I’m saying that as an adoptive parent and a foster parent.

Governor Grisham’s executive order to ban licensed concealed carriers from Bernalillo County and the city of Albuquerque never passed the smell test, even if it diverts some attention away from the Democrat mayor, the city council and the political mess they’ve made.

The Governor got virtually no support from anyone, even on her side of the aisle. And after six lawsuits and a temporary restraining order blocking the gun rights suspsension, she was forced to “amend” her public health order.

That kind of public humiliation is the perfect outcome given the twisted and cynical politics of the day. Now, Governor, maybe you can look at the ongoing violent crime in Albuquerque and blame the judge. You’ll probably claim — without evidence — that your executive order would have saved lives if only he hadn’t blocked your “emergency” order. The sycophant media are sure to nod their heads in unison and agree while the rest of us try to clean up your mess.

 

This article originally appeared at Slow Facts Blog and is reprinted here with permission. 

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39 COMMENTS

  1. A perfect outcome would have her completely pulling the order, resigning in disgrace and facing multiple lawsuits in her personal capacity for deprivation of rights under color of law.

    As it is, the outcome isn’t bad … at this time. The new order is still problematic so we’re back to again, as usual, playing whack-a-mole with ill-intentioned politicians.

  2. Question is: will her little stunt actually hurt her political profile or will it get her ‘donations’ from all the bloomburg-born groups?

    Remember, the democratic party has been trying to push Beto “hell yeah” coming for your guns even after he became the poster boy for gun confiscation. I’m not sure the losing elections is even a bad thing for these politicians, it just means they get all the money from special interests without having to actually do anything for it.

      • Its how failed democrat politicians that are not going to be re-elected or are leaving office set their elves up for their ‘retirements’. They do things like this, get these ‘contributions’ and some of that goes for their personal ‘retirements’. I’ll bet if you look deeply into this tyrants finances you are going to find some ‘unexplained financial affluence’ after she leaves office just like has been found for all these tyrant anti-gun types of late.

      • I’m not so sure that the money dries up just because of one failure. How long have they been pushing for national awbs? That’s a failure too, but it keeps getting politicians funded.

        And what about the long game? Push ridiculous measures, they get shot down, then you (or someone else) pushes slightly less ridiculous measures that seem almost reasonable by comparison.

  3. RE: “So why did the Governor ban honest gun owners from carrying in Albuquerque?”

    What’s to stop her when her voters and sadly most gun owners couldn’t Define Gun Control by its centuries of rot if their lives depended on it…And the article saying licensed to carry gun owners are more safe than the police caters to states that take the right to bear arms away from the citizenry and fraudulently sells it back to them.

  4. it hasn’t “Crashed and Burned” completely though. When she did the announcement for rolling back the order she had this odd ‘and other actions’ statement hinting at doing something else to law abiding gun owners. She’s leaning over her cauldron now, listening to EveryTown, stirring in some toe-of-newt and hair-of-frog trying to cook up something else.

    Tyrants are not done, they don’t stop, until they are deposed and removed from power.

  5. It looks like this has destroyed her ability to get herself elected to any national or state office. However I would be surprised if this didn’t get her on the list of likely appointments for the next Democrat administration. Unless the GOP lights itself on fire before November 2024 (never underestimate their genious for self destruction) Joe Biden will be done and over before January 21, 2025.

    Joe will be in a panic about being prosecuted for corruption, his only way out is if, to quote Monty Python: he has kicked the bucket, shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible! In short on that day he will be an Ex-President!

    • “However I would be surprised if this didn’t get her on the list of likely appointments for the next Democrat administration.”

      Exactly, a typical political ‘kick upstairs’…

  6. The population over there had better be paying attention. Personally, I think she should be removed from power all together. But this situation does put the unconstitutional nature of Democrats in a spotlight for all to see. The next election over there should be monitored. This whole thing gives teeth to a Republican running for that office.

    There is a message here that needs to be heard as it echoes the failed efforts of Beto O’Rourke. The reason for the Trump Rally in DC on Jan6 was very much about the people being tired of Democrats trampling over the Constitution and our rights. The problem is coming from the left.

  7. Now that’s she’s on the second attempt it’s time to take further action rather than just court because she’s not getting the message.

  12. The only solution is “national divorce.” Does anyone believe that the democrats who control the New Mexico legislature will impeach this woman and remove her from office???
    No, they will not.

    But don’t worry, the democrats will make sure you have plenty of “free stuff” from the government. Such as “free” condoms, “free” abortions, “free” medical marijuana”, “free” college tuition, and “free” sex change surgery.

    And they support your right to set things on fire such as the American Flag. Or the Christian cross. And the occasional American city will be allowed to burn to the ground.

    • Don’t forget your free smoking kits! Hey poor people have to do drugs too. It’s up to us to provide them with the proper tools to get high.

      Crack pipes are distributed in safe-smoking kits up and down the East Coast, raising questions about the Biden administration’s assertion that its multimillion-dollar harm reduction grant program wouldn’t funnel taxpayer dollars to drug paraphernalia.

      The findings are the result of Washington Free Beacon visits to five harm-reduction organizations and calls to over two dozen more. In fact, every organization we visited—facilities in Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Richmond, Va.—included crack pipes in the kits.

      • Yes I very much remember this. It was a libertarian dream come true. A government expenditure not listed in the constitution. That the Libertarians fully and enthusiastically support.

      • It all goes along with the libertarian support for prop 47 In California. Where it was made easier for drug addicts to pay for their habit. By stealing the private property of honest law, abiding and hard-working people.

    • Free sex change surgery. Wow. Will the surgery make a possum pretty too?
      I’ve got a plan if it does.
      Swoon a doctor, cheat on him with a lawyer, divorce the doctor and my new lawyer boytoy can sue him for everything he’s got. Then have my other junkie boy/girlfriend kill the lawyer and me and my boy/girl friend get high and live happily ever after.

  13. If she runs for re-election, how is she going to spin this one?
    And she just gave plenty of ammunition for whomever runs against her.

      • So on her way to the US Senate? The people of New Mexico got what they voted for – twice! -so will it be a big surprise if those same voters send her to DC? No, it will not.

  14. Those who can, do.

    Those who can’t, teach.

    Those who can’t do or teach, run for office.

    Those who can’t run for re-election, get appointed.

    (Somebody more well-spoken than me probably said it better.)

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