New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said she will not extend a public health order that temporarily banned the carrying of firearms in public parks and playgrounds in Albuquerque, the state’s largest city.
The temporary order, which went into effect in September 2023, was intended to slow gun violence in the metro area, but top state officials, gun advocates and members of her own Democratic Party widely viewed it as a violation of the Second Amendment. carry weapons.
The order prompted lawsuits from national gun rights and advocacy groups, forcing it to narrow its scope from applying to public places in Bernalillo County to applying to parks and playgrounds in Albuquerque.
Lujan Grisham said in a news release Wednesday that more than 1,700 firearms have been collected in gun buybacks over the past year because of the order. She also said this had reduced the number of gunfire incidents in the area, but did not provide figures.
Lujan Grisham, who was not available for comment Thursday, said in the news release: “The public health order, while temporary, allowed us to implement urgent and necessary measures that have had a measurable, positive impact on public safety in our state.”
Senate Republican Leader Greg Baca said Thursday he did not support the order.
“From the beginning, the governor’s action was unconstitutional and a convenient distraction to prevent the crime epidemic gripping our state,” Baca said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the reckless shell of the original order has endured for more than a year.”
The National Association for Gun Rights filed a lawsuit against the action last year; it was rejected after Lujan Grisham scaled back and changed her policies.
“This is a victory for gun owners,” said Dudley Brown, president of the association. “This is a calm way of admitting that her plan didn’t work.”
Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen, a Democrat who decided not to enforce the ban because he believed it was unconstitutional, could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Allen said last year: “This order will do nothing to curb gun violence except penalize law-abiding citizens of their constitutional right to self-defense. It’s unconstitutional. So there is no way we can enforce that order.”
Lujan Grisham issued the temporary injunction, originally a 30-day ban, in September 2023 after an 11-year-old boy was shot and killed in an Albuquerque park.
In addition to restricting firearms in public parks and playgrounds, Bernalillo County has strengthened oversight of firearm sales and implemented wastewater testing for fentanyl at public schools.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez, a Democrat, wrote in a letter last year that he opposed Lujan Grisham’s decision.
“Simply put, I do not believe the emergency order will have any meaningful impact on public safety, but more importantly, I do not believe it passes constitutional muster,” he wrote.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
