New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence is an…interesting group. We know that they’re anti-gunners to an extreme, but they’re also people who seem to think the rules don’t apply to them. Even if they advocated for them.

They also seem to have their head in the sand.

2023 wasn’t exactly a banner year for gun control in New Mexico. While it’s a fairly liberal state, it’s also a state that hasn’t tripped over itself to restrict the right to keep and bear arms as significantly as some other places with similar political demographics have.

Then Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham stepped on the proverbial landmine by banning all lawful carrying of firearms in Albuquerque and things got interesting.

However, NMPCV thinks 2024 may be their year.

Two years ago, the school partnered with the New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence to transform guns from the coalition’s buyback program into shovels and vases.

Since the program started, the coalition has bought back more than 2,000 guns, offering gift cards for groceries and Amazon. Coalition co-president Miranda Viscoli said every year, more people are interested in the program.

And it’s not just the buyback program. Viscoli said elected officials are increasingly responding to gun violence in the state, especially after a spike in 2021. This legislative session, the governor, and some state and city legislators, are eyeing measures to reduce gun-related injuries and deaths.

“I’m hoping that our elected officials are finally realizing that we are in a crisis point,” Viscoli said. “We’ve been in a crisis point for decades, and the crisis is only getting worse.”

It’s a “crisis point” they’ve been at for decades, even though the homicide rate was decreasing during all that time? Seriously?

Yet the media never questions that. They never bring up the actual numbers which saw the nation’s homicide rate decrease year after year since the mid-1990s. The only bump you really see until the last few years was in 2001, which included all the victims of 9/11.

But sure. It’s a crisis point.

Anyway, moving on…

Lujan Grisham is pursuing more gun-control measures this year. According to a spokesperson from her office, she is planning to push for a 14-day waiting period on gun sales, an assault weapons ban and a higher age restriction for firearm purchases.

Earlier this year, Lujan Grisham issued a public health order prohibiting the carrying of guns in Bernalillo County. It faced immediate legal challenges and was later truncated to apply only to parks and playgrounds. Her announcement came after the shooting deaths of two children in the county.

There we go.

It seems the media and NMGVP seem to think that 2024 will be their year because of what the governor tried.

What they’re omitting here is that not only did it face legal challenges but also faced challenges from her fellow Democratic statewide officeholders. In particular, the attorney general took issue with her executive order. Hell, even David Hogg disagreed with it, publicly if nothing else.

She stepped in it and stepped in it badly.

What she’s done in New Mexico, in particular, is make it clear that she has no respect for the Second Amendment. She doesn’t get to get away with the whole, “I support the Second Amendment but…” thing anymore. Even her fellow Democrats know the gig is up.

So I wouldn’t be so sure that Lujan Grisham’s agenda is going to be taken all that seriously, even by her fellow Democrats.

Meanwhile, NMGVP has its own problems to worry about besides what laws might get passed.