An 11 year old boy was killed, allegedly in a road rage incident in Albuquerque, NM. That death was seized upon by the Governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham, to decree a 30 day ban on concealed and open gun carry rights in Bernalillo County where Albuquerque is located.
Any violent death is tragic. However, as a pretext for a ban on constitutional rights it is not justified. Particularly when it will, by the Governor's own admission, not work. Criminals will not obey the ban. The Sheriff of Bernalillo County has publicly refused to enforce the ban due to it being unconstitutional. U.S. District Court Judge David Urias, a Biden appointee, has blocked the ban. Multiple gun groups are suing to overthrow the ban. Governor Lujan Grisham knew most of this would happen before she issued the ban. Clearly she is attempting to appeal to the fears of those afraid of guns on an emotional level.
The larger issue, though, is that she has boldly and explicitly asserted that constitutional rights are not absolute. And that she, under her ability to declare a public health emergency, has the authority to cancel them at her whim.
The most obvious precedent for this sort of thinking are the numerous public health emergency decrees issued to deal with COVID. Mandatory masks in public. Mandatory vaccinations if you want to keep your job. Mandatory social distancing in public. Mandatory lockdowns of businesses and schools. All of them are constitutionally questionable. Is not being prevented from doing business a violation of Fifth Amendment property rights? Are not social distancing and lockdown orders violations of First Amendment rights of association?
In New Mexico, bans on carrying guns are blatant violations of Second Amendment rights. The Governor obviously does not think the Constitution means what it says but instead means what five Supreme Court Justices can be persuaded to say it says.
Hopefully the courts and law enforcement officers on the ground will continue to enforce what the Constitution actually says.