BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation supports an official request by six United States Senators that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice act swiftly and take legal action against New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s unconstitutional edict suspending Second Amendment rights in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County.
“Attorney General Garland should have acted immediately when Gov. Lujan Grisham announced her order last week,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Instead, Garland and the DOJ have remained silent while gun rights organizations, including SAF, had to carry their water by suing to protect the constitutional rights of American citizens. It was us, not Garland and the DOJ, who went to federal court and obtained a temporary restraining order against the governor, and the American public should be asking why.
“The fact that Garland and the Biden DOJ have not taken any action is proof positive that Joe Biden has not upheld his oath of office,” Gottlieb continued. “Furthermore, Garland’s obvious hands-off reaction to the governor’s outrageous direct attack on the Second Amendment clearly illustrates why he was not confirmed by the Senate to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.”
In a letter to Garland Wednesday, Senators Lindsey Graham, Thom Tillis, Jon Cornyn, Tom Cotton, John Kennedy and Marsha Blackburn stated, “By preventing certain New Mexicans from exercising their constitutional rights to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home, Governor Grisham is violating the Second Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, and Article IV of the Constitution. This is a chilling action, and it is imperative that your Department act immediately to show that this kind of unconstitutional abuse will not be tolerated in New Mexico or anywhere else in the United States.”
“Attorney General Garland and the DOJ have been AWOL since this disgraceful episode erupted a week ago,” SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut observed. “There is no small irony in the fact that SAF and other gun rights organizations have once again had to defend the constitution while Garland and his boss have been so busy trying to erode it.”