On Saturday, many of us learned about a shooting in Las Cruces, New Mexico, that left three people killed and a bunch more injured. It was a terrible incident, and one we knew from the start would be turned into a push for gun control.
I'd love to have been wrong, of course, but I wasn't.
It didn't even take all that long before it started.
The Las Cruces community is grappling with the aftermath of a tragic shooting that occurred Friday night, prompting a wave of grief and calls for action from local and state officials. A vigil held at the Thomas Branigan Memorial Library underscored the community's sorrow.
New Mexico State Senator Crystal Brantley expressed a sense of helplessness, even at the state capital.
"We need to make sure that guns are prevented from getting in the hands of youthful offenders of criminal and especially violent people in the street," said Brantley. She emphasized the need for the legislature to invest more in law enforcement and called for increased recruitment and retention of police officers to ensure public safety.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, who famously tried to ban all lawful carry of firearms in Albuquerque, is now talking about a special session of the legislature to address gun control after this incident.
However, there's a lot more that needs to be thought about.
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For one, this was an unsanctioned, illegal "car show" at a public park, one with a troubling recent history.
It was commonly known in the area that criminal activity and violence had been escalating at Young Park, but there was no attempt to address it. But now @GovMLG wants to use this as cover to take away your guns. #2a https://t.co/ZqZiod9OYq
— NM Shooting Sports Association (@NM_SSA) March 22, 2025
Further, the shooters in this case both used handguns and were well under the age of 21. In other words, they couldn't lawfully purchase handguns in the first place.
How anyone thinks an incident of two people getting guns illegally is a failure of too few gun control laws is beyond me.
Instead, what we see here is a specific location where crime was becoming more and more of a problem and that local police say they were too short-staffed to actually do anything about.
If Grisham wants to prevent these kinds of things, then maybe helping Las Cruces hire more police officers would be a great start.
Stomping on the rights of law-abiding citizens who had no part in what happened at Young Park isn't going to accomplish a blasted thing except solidify Grisham as an anti-gun governor.
The thing is, anyone who has followed her already knows that. We don't need useless demonstrations showing that she's as bad as we thought she was. We're already familiar with her anti-gun credentials.
Republicans responded by trying to expand the kind of things covered in this special session.
BREAKING: House Republicans sent a letter this morning to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, demanding a special session be called to address crime and healthcare.
— New Mexico House Republicans (@NMHouseGOP) March 22, 2025
Republicans in the legislature are ready with solutions. We hope Democrats are ready to listen to them.
It's unlikely they're eager to jump on the gun control bandwagon. If they were, they'd just respond approvingly of what Grisham already has in the works. Instead, it seems more likely that they'll try to push through some bills that focus more on crime, mental healthcare, and other things more in line with the typical GOP position on violent crime.
Everyone already knows how useless anything Grisham wants will be to prevent another such shooting, so they might as well give it a shot.
