If there is ever any ambiguity in a law involving guns, anti-gunners will exploit the hell out of it. In fairness, we will too, but that’s a matter of self-defense, among other things. If we don’t, we’ll get nowhere. Anti-gunners don’t even blink about it.
I’ve even seen officials lecture a law’s writer over what the law actually means with regard to gun control, so yeah, there can’t be any ambiguity.
But ambiguity is common in the law. They’re written by people, and while we lament the way they’re written, since it makes it harder for regular people to understand them, they’re designed to minimize those ambiguities and make it harder to exploit, but no one is perfect. There are areas where things can be interpreted differently.
Which brings us to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
We all recall how the crime rate in Albuquerque led to the governor trying to suspend all lawful carry in the city. It seems it’s not just the governor that’s on an anti-gun rampage, and at least one radical judge is willing to help.
A Santa Fe judge this week sided with the city in a closely watched case over a controversial 2023 resolution directing staff to plaster public buildings with signs warning citizens that firearms are banned. The ruling, delivered by First Judicial District Judge Kathleen McGarry Ellenwood, upheld the city’s sweeping interpretation of state law—and simultaneously shut down a legal challenge brought by a local resident who argued the city was trampling constitutional rights.
Ellenwood, a far-left Democrat and 2020 graduate of the extremist political organization Emerge, which works to elect some of the most aggressively anti-gun, pro-abortion activists in the country, granted summary judgment to the city. Her decision found plaintiff Aaron Perls lacked legal standing and failed to show the city’s resolution violated state law. Perls may appeal.
The measure, passed in January 2023, directed the city to post gun-ban warnings at libraries, the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, municipal sports fields, City Hall, the Municipal Court, and other facilities routinely used by children. Supporters claim these locations fall under a section of the New Mexico Constitution that prohibits guns on “school premises.” The state constitution defines that term so broadly that almost any location hosting a youth-oriented event might qualify.
Now, few people are really that upset about gun prohibition on school campuses, even if they think there should be some exceptions. We don’t want students waltzing around with guns, for example, and while the gun-free zone sign won’t do anything to prevent anyone who wants to break the law, it does allow them to be punished if caught.
I’m not exactly one of them, but I see the thinking there.
Yet what’s happening in Santa Fe is that the term “school premises” is being interpreted to mean just about anything that a kid might use on a regular basis. That’s troubling because these aren’t necessarily associated with schools. They’re just places that a school might engage the use of, which is bad. What’s worse is that the school doesn’t even seem to have to be involved in it. Municipal sports fields are used for youth leagues, but these are often activities that take place outside of school.
Emerge was supported by Hillary Clinton in 2016 and has gotten money from the George Soros-funded Open Society Foundation. To say that calling them an extremist political organization is probably accurate, and that smacks of this ruling having nothing to do with the law, just politics.
People who are affiliated with Emerge like gun control, for the most part. They want to see more of it, and they can’t get it passed as often as they’d like, so a judge in such a position would be inclined to use any ambiguity in the law they can find to try and expand gun control, such as what we’re seeing here.
It seems the “ambiguity” here, though, is that it doesn’t somehow preclude the gun-free zone extending beyond the school-owned facilities. I wouldn’t have imagined that’s necessary, yet here we are.
Meanwhile, these same people say we’re radical for believing the Second Amendment means what it says.
Wierd, ain’t it?
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