Other governors who have restricted gun access in their states

Sep. 15—Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham tried unsuccessfully to restrict the carrying of firearms in New Mexico via a public health order.

Here is what other governors have done:

Gov. Ralph Northam, D. Virginia 2018-2022

Gov. Northam used an executive order in January 2020 to ban weapons of any kind on the grounds of the Capitol as gun rights activists and militia members from across the U.S. urged armed protesters to gather at Virginia's Capitol to oppose gun-control bills up for vote.

Northam stated he wanted to avoid a repeat of the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville that ended in violence and the death of a counter-protester.

Gov. Rick Scott, R. Florida 2011-2019

After the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland — which killed 14 students and three faculty members in 2018 — Gov. Scott signed a bill raising the legal-buying age for rifles from 18 to 21 as well as imposing a three-day waiting period on all gun sale and allowing some school employees to carry guns.

Nikolas Cruz, the accused perpetrator, had legally purchased the AR-15-style assault rifle used at the school when he was 18.

Gov. Jared Polis, D. Colorado 2019-present

Earlier this year, Gov. Jared Polis signed four bills regulating guns in the state.

The first, Senate Bill 23-170, expands the state's Extreme Risk Protection Order law allowing district attorneys, educators, mental health professionals and other medical providers to petition a judge to confiscate guns from a potentially dangerous person, before the update only a law enforcement officer or a family member could make a petition.

Senate Bill 23-169 raises the minimum age requirement for purchasing a gun from 18 to 21.

House Bill 23-1219 imposes a three-day waiting period for gun buyers after they have paid for it. If a background check takes longer than three days, then the purchaser will have to wait for that to clear before they receive their gun.

Senate Bill 23-168 removes a state protection for gun and ammunition dealers and manufactures against lawsuits.

On the flip side, one town in New Mexico tried to require people to be "legally armed."

In 2021, Mayor Nathan Dial of Estancia — a small town southeast of Albuquerque — approved a rule requiring people to be legally armed to attend an Estancia Town Council meeting, just as a way of sending notice that the town is not going to let the state dictate what it can and cannot do.

At the time, the Roundhouse in Santa Fe had approved with an 8-5 vote a policy that prohibits firearms and other deadly weapons within the Roundhouse and in the adjoining Capitol complex, making it a gun-free zone.