After her initial gun ban edict last September, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham repeatedly renewed her “emergency” public health order banning lawful concealed carry in parks and playgrounds in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County, but as my colleague Tom Knighton reported on Thursday, she allowed her most recent extension to expire over the weekend, without ever explaining why. 

In a press release, the governor claimed “significant strides were made in reducing gun violence” across New Mexico over the past year and offered a bevy of statistics from the past twelve months; 1,700 guns collected in “buybacks”, a 36% increase in arrests related to “violent and/or gun-related crime”, and the distribution of 52,743 free gun locks, to name a few. 

But Lujan Grisham’s press release failed to mention whether anyone has been cited or charged by the New Mexico State Police or local law enforcement for violating the governor’s edict prohibiting concealed carry in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County’s parks and playgrounds, which has been the subject of lawsuits in both state and federal courts. And despite Lujan Grisham’s claims of progress in fighting violent crime, the Albuquerque Police Department’s most recent homicide statistics show there have been five fewer murders in the city to this point in 2024 compared to the same time period in 2023, a relatively modest decline of less than 10%. 

Other categories of crime have actually increased, according to APD statistics covering January through July of this year; including a 1% increase in assaults, and a 12% rise in burglaries, auto thefts, and vandalism/destruction of property. And while the city’s crime stats showed a 25% reduction in homicides in July 2024 compared to July 2023, the more recent year-to-date homicide numbers reveals that the past few months have been far more violent than the first part of the year. 

While I’m glad to see the governor chose to let her order expire, it’s still odd given her stated reasons for issuing her edict in the first place. Violent crime in Albuquerque is still above the national average, and the city’s slight decline in murders pales in comparison to the statistics in other cities like New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Cleveland, Ohio, which have all recorded reductions of 30% or more. According to crime analyst Jeff Asher’s Year-to-Date Homicide Dashboard, there’s been an average decrease of 17.9% in reported homicides across 277 cities, so Albuquerque is actually significantly behind the progress seen across the country. 

It’s not like Lujan Grisham has seen the light or is willing to admit that her carry ban was unenforceable or unconstitutional. She’s still patting herself on the back for her emergency order, boasting that it had a “measurable, positive effect on public safety in our state” despite all evidence to the contrary. So again, why did she decide to let her order expire now rather than renewing it once again? 

Maybe this explains her sudden change of heart. 

The executive order was challenged by the Republican Party of New Mexico, the National Rifle Association and others and was taken to the New Mexico Supreme Court where the question of the limits of gubernatorial executive powers was raised. 

One of the facets of the case against Lujan Grisham was how far the governor’s executive powers extend.

Authority to curb executive powers came up in recent regular legislative sessions and lately have received little traction.

The state Supreme Court heard the case in January and has not released a decision as of Oct. 16.

The state Supreme Court’s decision could be released at any time, and though allowing the order to expire shouldn’t render that pending decision moot, the governor may be trying to get in front of an opinion that declares she overstepped her authority by arbitrarily declaring some parks and playgrounds in the state “gun-free zones”. And given the anti-2A games that other courts have played, there’s always the possibility that the state Supreme Court will punt on its decision now that the emergency order is no longer in effect. 

Grisham did the right thing by letting her order expire, but it doesn’t look like it was for the right reasons. And unless the courts do declare that her unilaterally imposed gun ban went beyond the authority granted to the governor under the state’s constitution, she may very well decide to issue a similar edict in the future.