The National Association for Gun Rights has filed a lawsuit against New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and other state officials over her emergency order prohibiting people from carrying firearms in Albuquerque.
The lawsuit was filed by the organization and Albuquerque resident Foster Haines one day after Governor Grisham suspended concealed and open carry laws city-wide.
The complaint argues that the order violates the Second Amendment and cites the 2022 Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen.
In that case, the court ruled that New York’s “proper-cause” requirement for a permit to carry a concealed firearm violates the Fourteenth Amendment in that it “prevents law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.”
The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order against enforcement of the measure.
The governor had cited recent shootings in the city as the justification for the suspension of rights.
“When New Mexicans are afraid to be in crowds, to take their kids to school, to leave a baseball game — when their very right to exist is threatened by the prospect of violence at every turn — something is very wrong,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement.
Republican state Reps. Stefani Lord and John Block have called for Governor Grisham to be impeached.
“I am calling on counsel to begin the impeachment process against Governor Grisham,” Lord said, according to a report from Fox News. “This is an abhorrent attempt at imposing a radical, progressive agenda on an unwilling populous. Rather than addressing crime at its core, Governor Grisham is restricting the rights of law-abiding gun owners. Even Grisham believes this emergency order won’t prohibit criminals from carrying or using weapons; a basic admission that this will only put New Mexicans in danger as they won’t be able to defend themselves from violent crime.”