CNN anchor Poppy Harlow whipped out the New Mexico Constitution on Tuesday to ask Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) what empowers her to suspend gun rights.
In the interview, Lujan Grisham repeatedly attacked New Mexico law enforcement for opposing her order, which temporarily suspends open and concealed carry rights in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. She claimed her critics have no solution for gun violence, suggested law enforcement is ignoring the problem, and asserted anyone who opposes her is using “NRA talking points.”
“It’s not for police to tell me what’s constitutional or not,” the tyrant-in-training screeched.
Ad hominem attacks aside, Harlow directly confronted Lujan Grisham over her assertion that she has the “right” to suspend rights endowed to New Mexicans by the U.S. Constitution and the New Mexico Constitution.
“But where is the right? Where is the right?” the CNN anchor asked.
At first, Lujan Grisham tried to dodge the question. She invoked abortion rights, the NRA, and a recent Supreme Court case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. But Harlow had had enough and whipped out the New Mexico Constitution.
“The New Mexico Constitution, I looked last night. Article 2, Section 6, says this: ‘No law shall abridge the right of citizens to keep and bear arms for security and defense. No municipality or county shall regulate in any way any incident the right to keep and bear arms,'” Harlow explained. “Are you not in violation of both the U.S. Constitution and your state’s constitution?”
Lujan Grisham said her order does not violate the constitutions she swore to uphold, describing the actual text of her state constitution as a “narrow reading,” as if the words themselves are an interpretation.
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After the governor attacked law enforcement once more, Harlow confronted Lujan Grisham again, this time using her own admission that her order will not stop criminals from using guns. The governor denied she is using the order to make a “statement.”
Finally, Harlow posed a hypothetical: “What if a Republican governor of a state declares a health emergency and unilaterally outlaws abortion in that state, where the legislature has not done so by statute? Following your logic, would that also be sound?”
Lujan Grisham responded that suspending abortion rights would not be OK because her order is “about protecting everyone’s rights” and passing pro-life laws “is about restricting some rights.”
But as Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen (D) explained, Lujan Grisham’s order “only punishes law-abiding citizens” because “criminals do not follow the law or a public-health order,” and thus the order does not protect anyone’s rights. Tragically, that came true on Saturday when yet another Albuquerque resident lost their life to gun violence.
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