BY: ABQ RAW staff
POSTED: 09/12/2023 @ 2:15PM
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Downtown Albuquerque –
On September 12th, 2023, Albuquerque’s Civic Plaza became the latest location for gun right activists to protest Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s public health order banning open and concealed carry of guns within Bernalillo County.
At its peak over 75 people came to Civic Plaza to hold signs and speak to the crowd. Some open carried their firearms ranging from pistols, long rifles, and even a 1700’s era musket was seen. ABQ RAW noticed the signage usually posted throughout civic plaza announcing this is a school zone was missing. In 2020, Mayor Tim Keller made Civic Plaza a no weapons zone and three people were cited during a Black Lives Matter protest at Civic Plaza. All those signs had been removed before today’s event.
Senior law enforcement officials who are not authorized to speak to the media said Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has been calling federal agencies to try to get them to enforce the order since local agencies have refused.
We reached out the the U.S. Attorney’s Office of New Mexico to see if they were in talks with the Governor and if they would take federal gun charges on from this public health order. They did NOT return our inquiry.
At the time of publishing this article more than 5 lawsuits have been filed against the Department of Health and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham referencing this 30-day-ban. Also, many of the Governor’s political allies have spoken out against this measure.