Reciprocity in New Mexico
New Mexico bars carry permits to legal resident aliens. They’re getting sued by the SAF for that. They’ve amended their reciprocity standards with other states so that those states must do the same. That is, they pulled reciprocity for those states that do not require US citizenship to get a permit. As such, 13 states no longer have reciprocity with New Mexico and Tennessee is one of them.
Update: Looks like NM has reinstated reciprocity. Good.
May 2nd, 2012 at 9:53 am
They reinstated 14 states including Tenesssee
May 2nd, 2012 at 9:54 am
As a legal resident with a carry permit (even though such things are no longer needed for discreet carry here in the Copper State),
This sucks.
Imagine if the headline were “New Mexico bans legal resident aliens from blogging and Twitter”. The ACLU and the EFF would be all over them like stink on a hobo.
May 2nd, 2012 at 9:56 am
They have already reinstated 14 states including Tennessee
May 2nd, 2012 at 10:06 am
A part of me wants to agree with the citizenship requirement, but being here legally should be enough.
May 2nd, 2012 at 10:14 am
New Mexico has reinstated 14 of the states dropped according to Gary Slider of handgunlaw.us. I have updated my original post to show this along with Gary’s message.
May 2nd, 2012 at 10:18 am
Yay! Texas is back in the good graces of New Mexico!
I thought I felt a disturbance in the Rorce, as if dozens of Texas CHL holders, driving to vacations in Colorado over the Raton Pass, had cried out in anguish.
But nevermind!
May 2nd, 2012 at 11:30 am
Constitutionally, this is a no-brainer. You can’t deny any privileges to legal residents of the US with only a few very narrow exceptions, related to carrying out special public governmental functions, like law enforcement.
New Mexico should roll over now, and avoid paying SAF’s attorneys.
May 2nd, 2012 at 11:47 am
Guess the Southeast San Francisco Political Elites (i.e., the Santa Fe and Taos Hippie State Reps) forgot that they aren’t in Kalifornia anymore.
May 2nd, 2012 at 4:53 pm
Don’t make me come down there, NM.
May 2nd, 2012 at 6:18 pm
New Mexico wont honor my license because PA doesnt go full tilt fascist when issuing them.
“NMDPS has generally found six things that make a state substantially different from New Mexico, and therefore would disqualify that state from being recognized:
Permits issued locally rather than by the state;
No fingerprint-based background check;
Permits issued to persons under 21 years of age;
Permits issued to resident aliens;
No classroom (static) training required;
No live-fire (dynamic) training required.
”
Funny, never saw any of those in my State Constitution.. or the federal one.
May 2nd, 2012 at 6:19 pm
What’s their (New Mexico) problem?
And how do they drop them so fast and then add them back so fast?
Sounds like some government apparatchik at work.
May 2nd, 2012 at 9:37 pm
I live in NM and I work in an industry that is largely Hispanic and Mexican nationals. I know several that have carry permits issued in this state….
May 3rd, 2012 at 6:45 am
NM is going to lose the SAF/Gura lawsuit but the Democratic Attorney General was facing a tough issue in his defense of the state policy: they were allowing non-citizens from other states carry privileges but not non-citizens residing in New Mexico. Instant Due Process fail. So his answer was to deny all.
The problem there is political. New Mexico has the largest hispanic population by percentage and this policy disproportionately affects that community. New Mexico leans Dem in the presidential race, but Romney has some serious SW USA assets and is looking to make a play. NM is not considered a “Battleground” state, though not as close to the line as North Carolina.
So the Obama-supporting AG has a choice: maintain a policy that causes a sure failure of his state law in a legal challenge; or increase the chances of that lawsuit while alienating a portion of the key demographic group required to maintain the president in office, not to mention his own job.
New Mexico is an example of why we need to keep our people active: when we speak, the politicians move. Increasingly even Blue States are going our way. We need to keep the pressure strong.