ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (LifeSiteNews) — A federal judge issued a temporary injunction stopping Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s “health emergency” executive order that curtailed Second Amendment gun ownership rights.
The September 7 and September 8 “public health emergency” declaration came after the shooting deaths of multiple children from July to September, as previously reported by LifeSiteNews.
The leftist governor’s order suspended “open and concealed carry laws in Bernalillo County, temporarily prohibiting the carrying of guns on public property with certain exceptions” (such as police and security guards) and required lawful gun owners to “transport the firearm in a locked box, use a trigger lock, or some other mechanism that renders the gun incapable of being fired.”
Biden-appointed Judge David Urias ruled that the plaintiffs, including gun rights groups, “have shown a likelihood of success on the merits that their Second and Fourteenth Amendment rights to publicly carry a firearm for self-defense will be violated if the [order] remains in effect.”
He cited decades of Second Amendment jurisprudence, including the 2022 Supreme Court decision New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
Judge Urias ruled the executive order likely violated Bruen’s holding, which requires gun restrictions to be “consistent with this Nations’ historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
The next hearing on the executive order is set for October 3.
The ruling is the latest setback for Grisham’s initiative to restrict gun rights. Attorney General Raul Torrez, a fellow Democrat, said his office would not defend her executive order.
Gov. Grisham criticized the ruling on X Wednesday evening.
“Today a judge temporarily blocked sections of our public health order but recognized the significant problem of gun violence in this state,” she wrote. “I refuse to be resigned to the status quo, and I will never stop fighting to prevent other families from enduring these tragedies.”
Gun Owners of America, which challenged the executive action, celebrated the decision. “This is a win for all gun owners in New Mexico and sends a clear message to all anti-gun states – Shall NOT Be Infringed,” the group wrote on X.