Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday announced a new public health order that, she said, will prohibit people from carrying firearms, either open or concealed, in Albuquerque and throughout Bernalillo County for the next 30 days, regardless of whether they have a permit.
The order takes effect immediately.
It states “no person, other than a law enforcement officer or licensed security officer, shall possess a firearm … either openly or concealed, within cities or counties averaging 1,000 or more violent crimes per 100,000 residents per year since 2021.”
Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, issued an executive order Thursday evening declaring gun violence a public health emergency. During a news conference Friday, she said she expects legal challenges to the new public health order and expressed uncertainty about whether the order would prevail in court.
The order currently applies only to the city of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County, Lujan Grisham said, and can only be enforced not by local authorities but by New Mexico State Police, whose presence in the state’s largest city would be “significant” over the next month.
Violating the order would likely be a misdemeanor, Lujan Grisham said, and it will not apply to private property or at a licensed gun dealer or shooting range. While traveling, the order states, firearms must be locked in a container or with a trigger lock.
Lujan Grisham’s order also calls upon the state Department of Health to compile and issue “a comprehensive report on gunshot victims presenting at hospitals in New Mexico.”
A separate order calls for some measures to combat substance abuse as well, such as a joint program by the Department of Health and the state Environmental Department to conduct wastewater testing for drugs like fentanyl at public schools.
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