New Mexico governor flunks basic civics

Remember when we had 3 branches of government that provided checks and balances on each other? That was cool.

One issue we go back and forth on is gun control. There are many events that shape how the matter should be handled. Concealed carry is generally a right. We've never denied it. But you don't get to stomp into a crowd like a weirdo and brandish assault rifles at random people.

Now something strange is happening in New Mexico, where embattled Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has just issued an executive order suspending the right to concealed carry in Albuquerque's Bernalillo County.

One thing is for sure: This order is illegal. The right to concealed carry is backed up by statute in New Mexico, as it is almost everywhere else in America. That's the law. Governors aren't supposed to be able to just bark down orders suspending laws on a whim.

Lujan Grisham can't very well claim she cares about protecting children, after she supported child abuse in the name of fighting COVID. America might be the only country in the world with such a severe gun violence epidemic, but it's also one of the few modern nations with such a deep history of economic inequality and where schools were closed over COVID for as long as they were. Since long before COVID, our political "leaders" have maliciously refused to address our bad schools, choosing instead to punish students who were forced out of school. And community improvement projects disproportionately benefit rich areas and the wealthy, while the poor languish in despair. Gun violence has root causes - which are never addressed.

If a governor can unilaterally declare an emergency and use it to suspend legally protected rights, then you really don't have legally protected rights.

Much of this is basic middle school civics. The governor's main job is to execute the law - not write her own laws. She is not part of the legislative branch. If you want to change the law, write to lawmakers.

Even some politicians and activists who favor more gun control say Lujan Grisham is overreaching. They point out that constitutional liberties have no exceptions for emergencies declared by governors. On the other hand, what have we been experiencing for the past 3½ years? The sequence of events in this story is very similar to that of the COVID lockdowns - which established a bad precedent that governors can suspend rights at will.

This could get out of hand in a way far worse than it appears now. Recently, for the first time in my life, I began to seriously believe that America could end up under widespread martial law that far exceeds even what we saw during COVID. What folks in New Mexico are seeing could be just the start. Considering the past lies and abuse by our "leaders", it could be a deliberate step to completely disempower the public in the face of unimaginable totalitarianism.