Regarding the recent dust up in New Mexico of this last week where
Governor Michelle Lujan Gresham attempted to deny the People’s right to
bear arms under a “medical emergency” we saw a “trickle down” gun
control attempt under a different name. But, if it walks like a duck and
quacks and swims like a duck…
In Miranda v. Arizona, a Supreme Court case from 1966, the
ruling says “When rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there
can be no rule making or legislation which would abrogate them.” This
does not apply only to New Mexico, but Tennessee as well.
From State Attorney General Raúl Torrez in a letter to Governor Gresham:
While no one doubts the devasting impact that gun violence has had on
our community over the last several years, it is not clear that that
problem is properly defined as a ”public health emergence” as that term
is used within the PHERA, or Public Health Emergency Response
Authorization. Moreover, even if the problem is properly categorized as a
“public health emergency” the date do not support the conclusion that
gun violence in our community is attributable to otherwise law abiding
citizens exercising their constitutional right to carry firearms for
protection outside the home. As the former Bernalillo County District
Attorney, I agree with your assessment that “responsible gun owners are
certainly not our problem (and) have never been our problem.” Given that
only responsible gun owners are likely to abide, much less recognize
your ban, it is unclear how this action will lead to a measurable
decline in gun violence in our community.
To lend credence to his statements, I reference for proof this
article in the Nashville news today where Brandon Ostein, 36, of
Nashville, was arrested. Police said they found 37 pounds of
fentanyl-laced cocaine, guns, shoeboxes containing around $400,000 cash,
plastic baggies, kilogram presses and vacuum sealers when they searched
his Nashville apartment. He is a convicted drug felon and was on parole
and registered with Metro Nashville Police Department as an ex-con last
October. What law passed to control the law abiding prevented him from
breaking it. Criminals are going to criminal!
It is time we stopped allowing our elected employees to act on feelings and not the Constitution’s enumerated rights.
By the way, governments do not give you rights, they can only protect
or take them away from the People. Per our state Constitution in
Article 10 Section 1 it says, “Every person who shall be chosen or
appointed to any office of trust or profit under this Constitution, or
any law made in pursuance thereof, shall, before entering on the duties
thereof, take an oath to support the Constitution of this state, and of
the United States, and an oath of office.” That is everybody from the
governor to the dogcatcher if they are tax-payer paid. In the oath of a
member of the general assembly they promise to, in all appointments,
vote without favor, affection, partiality, or prejudice; and that they
will not propose or assent to any bill, vote or resolution, which shall
appear to them injurious to the people, or consent to any act or thing,
whatever, that shall have a tendency to lessen or abridge their rights
and privileges, as declared by the Constitution of this state.
How can they honestly take that oath if they do not know what the Constitutions require as rights for the People? The Bruen
case from last year sets a test for all things which affect one’s 2nd
Amendment rights. The ruling says “In keeping with Heller, we hold that
when the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct,
the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct. To justify its
regulation, the government may not simply posit that the regulation
promotes an important interest. Rather, the government must demonstrate
that the regulation is consistent with this Nation’s historical
tradition of firearm regulation.” Further, the Court stated, “The test
that we set forth in Heller and apply today requires courts to assess
whether modern firearms regulations are consistent with the Second
Amendment’s text and historical understanding.”
It is our job as citizens to honor our obligation from Article 1
Section 23 of our State ‘s Declaration of Rights and instruct our
representatives. Contact your elected employees, if they do not get the
fact that our state constitution takes your rights out of their hands,
that those rights are to remain inviolate and to never be violated on
any pretense whatever, get new employees.
