By Dave Workman | Editor-in-Chief
A quarter of gun rights organizations including the National Rifle Association, Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition and New Mexico Shooting Sports Association filed a federal lawsuit Friday against New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, challenging her closure of gun stores during the COVID-19 crisis.
The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico and is known as Aragon v. Grisham.
The four groups are joined by two businesses and four private citizens. They are represented by attorneys Patrick J. Rogers, Albuquerque; Adam Kraut, Sacramento, Calif.; Michael T. Jean, Fairfax, Va., and Cody J. Wisniewski, Lakewood, Colo. Also named as a defendant is Kathyleen Kunkel, secretary for the New Mexico Department of Health. Both Grisham and Kunkel are being sued in their official capacities. The Department of Health is also a named defendant.
According to the 35-page complaint: “New Mexico’s government cannot suspend the Constitution and Americans’ individual freedoms. The suspension and deprivation of natural and constitutionally protected rights and liberties by governmental fiat is unlawful.”
It is the same argument that has been made in several legal actions over the past three weeks involving SAF, FPC and/or NRA, with help from various local organizations in the states where these complaints have been filed.
“This lawsuit challenges Defendants’ mandatory shuttering of lawful retail firearms businesses,” the New Mexico lawsuit adds. “By arbitrarily, capriciously—and unconstitutionally—targeting those who lawfully sell firearms and ammunition, New Mexico is depriving citizens of their natural and fundamental right to keep and bear arms.”
This lawsuit came about 24 hours after SAF, FPC and Commonwealth Second Amendment took Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker to federal court in that state essentially on the same allegation. Baker, a Republican, has been unfriendly to gun rights since taking office, according to Jim Wallace, executive director of the Massachusetts Gun Owners Action League, which is not a plaintiff in that case, but is supporting the effort.
In a statement announcing the federal lawsuit, SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb said, “Gov. Grisham simply can’t suspend the Second Amendment. Of course there is an emergency, but such emergencies do not nullify the Constitution, even temporarily. We cannot allow public officials to put their personal agendas above the rights protected by the Constitution, and that includes the right of the people to keep and bear arms.”
“The government has no duty to protect you and coronavirus-related impacts to law enforcement could be significant,” added FPC President Brandon Combs, “so times like now are precisely when people must be able to acquire self-defense tools to defend their lives and homes. We are proud to participate in this important case to defend the People’s right to keep and bear arms against government abuses in New Mexico.”
“Unfortunately,” said attorney Kraut, who is also FPC Director of Legal Strategy, “we find ourselves having to litigate yet another case where government officials believe that a crisis creates an exception to an enumerated constitutional right. We are happy to join with our friends from various organizations to defend the People of New Mexico’s right to keep and bear arms.”
