The issue of guns and the Constitution hit center stage last week when the New Mexico governor unilaterally decided to ban people legally carrying guns in one town – Albuquerque – for a period of 30 days. She did it as a response to several instances of gun violence in Albuquerque, the latest which took the life of an innocent 11-year-old boy.
I was in New Mexico at the time – and in a town that is inhabited in the summer mostly by residents of Oklahoma and Texas – so I got a front-row seat to the response from the public by that action.
As everyone knows by now, it wasn’t good. And, it was a bipartisan response across the state and in the New Mexico Legislature. The governor – a Democrat — overstepped her bounds and violated the Constitution.
U.S. District Judge David Urias granted a temporary restraining order blocking measure, which came after New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez — a fellow Democrat — said he would not defend the governor from any legal challenges to the order.
The harsh reaction by leading officials in New Mexico and the public pushed Gov. Lujan Grisham to revise the order to suspend the carrying of firearms at parks and playgrounds in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. It also clarified that the 30-day limitation does not apply to parklands managed by the Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department or State Land Office.
The governor knows this is simply a symbolic gesture and will not really result in any changes.
When asked last Friday whether she believes the move will stop criminals in Albuquerque from carrying a gun on the streets, Lujan Grisham flatly said, “No.”
“But here’s what I do think – it’s a pretty resounding message to everybody else in that community to report a crime, to tell us what’s going on, to aid law enforcement to do something different,” she said.
It certainly has gotten the nation talking again about the rights guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment and also reignited the debate about whether any gun safety laws are possible in a nation that is seeing an epidemic of gun violence.
Let’s be honest – it is an epidemic. And while those of us who embrace the 2nd Amendment as a sacred right to protect ourselves, how safe do we all really feel these days when we go to a public gathering or an event or even sending our children to school?
New Mexico still has requirements for gun owners to legally carry guns. They have a conceal-carry law, much like what Oklahoma’s used to be, in which gun owners have to pass basic background checks and have to go through a reasonable process to legally carry a concealed weapon.
However, Oklahoma and many other conservative states, have disbanded those requirements. As of 2019, Oklahoma is an “open-carry” state that allows adults 21 or older to carry guns without a permit, as long as they have a legitimate purpose and aren’t breaking any other laws. Active-duty military and veterans over the age of 18 can also carry a firearm in public without a license. A person’s weapon must be holstered or slung if it’s not concealed. There are some limitations on places where guns an be carried, such as schools or government buildings.
However, that hasn’t stopped gun violence in Oklahoma or anywhere else. In fact, gun violence occurred just recently at some school sporting events in the state.
Many believe all conservatives (i.e., Republicans) are in lockstep with the 2nd Amendment purists that believe there should be no or very few laws regulating gun ownership or carrying guns. However, a recent poll taken in June shows that Republican women not only support certain kinds of gun restrictions more than Republican men do, they also mostly agree with Democratic and independent women on what those solutions should be.
Kristen Soltis Anderson, the veteran pollster who designed and fielded the survey, said she sees an important shift in how Republican women approach the gun issue.
“There are plenty of issues where we see Republican men and women are very aligned in their views. But on guns, there’s a gender gap emerging across our poll and others, and Republican women seem increasingly open to some changes to the laws on the books,” Anderson said.
According to the poll, about six in 10 Democratic women and 55 percent of independent women said they were either very worried or somewhat worried that a mass shooting will happen near them. More than one-third (35 percent) of Republican women feel the same way.
I’m one who believes there are reasonable and responsible ways to enact common-sense gun safety measures and still ensure that law-abiding citizens maintain the right to own and carry firearms. I myself have been a conceal-carry permit holder, and I believe the system in which I became a conceal-carry permit holder was reasonable and not too burdensome.
In fact, I learned a great deal about gun handling and gun safety when I became a conceal-carry permit holder.
I believe in definite age limits to carry a handgun and purchase a semi-automatic weapon. I believe in returning the conceal-carry permit requirements, and I believe in closing the gun-show loopholes. In my mind, these are not burdensome to legal and responsible gun ownership.
It is time to address this issue head on, and that will mean determined debates and much disagreement. If any such requirements prevent one instance of gun violence, it’s worth it.
If Democrat and Republican women are generally aligned on gun-safety requirements, (and because more women are registered voters than men), then certainly something can be done to help take meaningful steps to address gun violence in our country. It’s past time we applied common sense to gun regulations, and it’s time for common-sense women to step up and be leaders on this issue.
Cindy Allen 