Santa Fe, NM — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Wednesday that she has ended a public health emergency order that suspended the right to carry weapons in public parks and playgrounds in New Mexico’s largest metropolitan area.
The original September 2023 public health order set off a frenzy of public protests, sparked Republican calls for the governor’s impeachment and deepened divisions among top Democratic officials. It also sought to strengthen oversight of firearm sales and monitor illegal drug use in public schools through wastewater testing — before it expired without extension on Saturday.
“I have decided to let the public health order expire, but our fight to protect New Mexico communities from the dangers of guns and illegal drugs will continue,” Lujan Grisham said.
CBS News
She described steps toward reducing gun violence through gun buyback programs, increased arrests, the distribution of free gun storage locks and an increased inmate population at an Albuquerque detention center.
She said more than 1,700 guns have been collected through gun buybacks, reports KRQE-TV, an affiliate of CBS Albuquerque.
The governor’s original order would have suspended the right to bear arms in most public places in the Albuquerque area, but was scaled back to public parks and playgrounds, with an exception to ensure access to a municipal shooting range park. Lujan Grisham said she was responding to a series of shootings in the state that left children dead.
Gun rights advocates have filed a series of lawsuits and lawsuits aimed at blocking gun restrictions that they say would deprive Albuquerque residents of their 2nd Amendment right to carry in public for self-defense. The implications for ongoing litigation in federal court were unclear.
The standoff was one of several in the wake of a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision to expand gun rights as leaders in politically liberal-leaning states explore new avenues for restrictions.
The gun restrictions were tied to a statistical violent crime threshold that applied only to Albuquerque and the surrounding area.
