We know where New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham stands on gun rights, and by that I mean we know she prefers to wipe her feet on them.

That became clear last year when she unilaterally and illegally banned all lawful firearm carry in the city of Albuquerque.

While she got smacked down for that one, she’s been pushing hard this legislative cycle for gun control. What’s more, it’s certainly looking like some of it might make it to her desk.

Gun rights supporters in the state needed to step up and do something, so they did.

A strong sentiment among people rallying outside of the Roundhouse Saturday morning was that lawmakers trying to regulate guns know little about them.

“We are the gun owners of New Mexico,” Zach Fort, legislative affairs officer for the New Mexico Shooting Sports Association, a branch of the National Rifle Association, said at Saturday’s rally. “We’re obviously concerned about crime. [Gun control] is the wrong way to address it.”

About 200 people gathered in freezing temperatures to oppose a handful of gun control bills making their way through the Democratic-majority state Legislature. The NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, the New Mexico Shooting Sports Association and New Mexico Firearms Industry Association organized the rally. Several Republican lawmakers attended, including Reps. Stefani Lord, R-Sandia Park; John Block, R-Alamogordo; Luis Terrazas, R-Silver City; Randall T. Pettigrew, R-Lovington; and Sen. David Gallegos, R-Eunice.

Speakers and protesters emphasized that violence in the U.S., while concerning, stems from societal problems such as poverty, failing schools and inadequate prosecution of criminals, not guns. Sanctioning law-abiding gun owners will not keep people safe, they said, but rather prevent people from being able to protect themselves from gun-toting criminals and the possibility of a tyrannical government.

“With all the things going on, it’s even more important to have the guns,” said Victor Segura, a veteran and gun collector who came to the rally from Albuquerque.

Segura got that part absolutely right.

New Mexico is having problems. There’s no doubt about that. However, from what we’ve seen, those problems aren’t coming from lawful firearm purchases but from criminals who are obtaining guns through illicit means.

In other words, there’s nothing unique happening there in that regard.

But anti-gun lawmakers don’t care about our gun rights or even about the facts of what’s happening. What they’re interested in doing is making a show of taking the problem seriously. They don’t actually care if it solves the problem or not, only if people will think it solves the problem.

Yet extensive gun control regulations not only don’t make people safer, they make them less safe. That’s because the people who represent the problem will keep getting guns but now people are less able to defend themselves.

That’s not going to change, and these gun rights advocates are right to stand up and protect their right to keep and bear arms.

After all, their governor–a woman who swore to support and defend the US Constitution–has absolutely no respect for the Second Amendment.