Just spent a few pleasant days in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Gun laws there are strange. “Open carry” of handguns has long been legal there, but concealed carry didn’t become lawful in NM until the 21st Century.

There are some unique laws in New Mexico. A lawyer friend tells me it’s illegal to carry any deadly weapon except a handgun, the latter either openly or – with a permit – concealed. This means it’s technically illegal to carry a pocket knife. Unfortunately, I didn’t discover this until late in my stay. Fortunately, the law is not widely enforced.

Carrying a second handgun for backup is a safety practice that has much to recommend it, but is not allowed in The Land of Enchantment, pistol permit notwithstanding. For pistol-packers, most of the better restaurants are off limits because they have liquor licenses. You can carry in a restaurant that serves only beer and wine, so long as the gun is legally concealed and you don’t consume any alcohol. However, even a teetotaler can’t enter an establishment that sells hard liquor if he or she is armed, regardless of concealed carry permit. And the guy or gal with a gun openly worn can’t step into the beer and wine premises, either.

Hell, we found it easier to order pizza, buy a six-pack, and eat in my hotel suite. On the last night, though, we had dinner with a couple of friends from the criminal justice community at a no-booze restaurant, Mary and Tito’s in Albuquerque, where you don’t need ethanol to enjoy the James Beard Award-winning food.

You’d think justice in self-defense cases would run strong in a state with as much Old West heritage as New Mexico, but I have my doubts. Locals told me of the decorated war vet and Federal officer who chased a burglar off duty, struggled with him for his gun when the fleeing felon turned and attacked him, and had to kill the criminal. The vet was charged with murder, ended up browbeaten into pleading to voluntary manslaughter, and was reportedly saved from prison time only by intervention from the Governor’s Office. What the (expletive deleted)? A few years ago, in another part of the state, I spoke at the sentencing hearing of an Otero County deputy who had killed a cop-killer and was railroaded into taking a plea for manslaughter before I became involved. We were able to get him probation on the manslaughter charge, but because NM has a mandatory one-year sentence for any felony committed with a firearm, the judge was forced by the law (obviously against his will and good judgment) to put the cop behind bars.

New Mexico is still a great place to visit. It has a wild beauty to it. I photographed a sandstorm beginning to build the night I left, and figured I should leave town before anyone blamed the sandstorm on the Arab.

There are lots of good folks in Albuquerque, and some of ’em are shown here, taking a Massad Ayoob Group class on rules of engagement for armed citizens.

MAG20 Albuquerque, NM

Great food in Albuquerque. No alcohol on premises, but some of us will trade Merlot for a Magnum any day.

Tito and Mary's Albuquerque, NM

Black cloud approaching the city is incipient sandstorm, which fortunately petered out.

New Mexico Sandstorm

1 COMMENT

  1. Common sense isn’t common anymore. New Mexico sounds like it’s truly living up to its name. Your story makes me turn my nose up at visiting either New or Old Mexico.

  2. Got to love those laws! I can pack two firearms (to the best of my knowledge) but my pocket knife better be under 3.5 inches. Thankfully, the length is the only real restriction. There’s no distinction between fixed or folder, double-edge or single etc in CO as far as I can tell.

    I’d love to see a law that just says “Weapons may be carried concealed or openly for lawful purposes such as self-defense. When used in lawful self-defense, the user shall be immune to criminal and civil liability. Furthermore this law shall apply to any Federal property, the Post Office and any means of interstate travel including commercial airlines and trains. ”

    Pre 9/11 I recall going on airlines with an assisted folder with no problems at all.

    I recall reading the Otero County OIS and that has to be one of the worst court cases I’ve read. I hope the guards were understanding and maybe kept him separate or something. Prison is bad enough for the honest citizen but for an officer?

    On a side note, love the witty title and closing line.

  3. The permit issue sounds similar to here in Oregon. As I was told over and over again in the required class before receiving my permit, “It’s a Concealed Handgun License, NOT a Concealed Weapons License!” Small pocket knives are allowed, but even though some of the best folders in the world are made here (Benchmade, Gerber, Columbia River Knife and Tool), it’s questionable if the longer bladed ones are legal. Crazy. Trust me with a .45, but not a blade? Sure, makes sense to me!

  4. On the topic of chasing the burglar, I don’t have my copy of Gravest Extreme handy at this moment, but I thought you said in that book that one should never chase a criminal for exactly this reason. The law will hold you responsible for whatever happens after he started to run away.

  6. The New Mexico State Legislature COULD CHANGE THIS (if they wanted to and) if their Constituency ASKED THEM TO!!!

  8. We had been considering buying a vacation piece of land in NM, but that kind of law is enough to make me want to go to Arizona or Nevada instead. They ain’t perfect, but better than NM.

  9. Weapons laws are screwy all over. You should have seen the tangle of laws we had in GA until recently. Its still not perfect but we are working on it. Under current state law, knives with blades under 5″ don’t require a weapons license, however there is no case law on knife preemption. Some of the legal eagles say you need to carry a knife over 5″ to be sure.

  10. I’ll stay in Tennessee for now. Alot more sane. New Mexico sounds more like my old home state of New York. Oh, and very funny last line! 🙂

  11. One other quirk in NM law (unless it was recently changed) is that you cannot carry a concealed firearm into a store that sells liquor. This means that a Wal-Mart or grocery store that has a separate liquor section is off-limits for concealed carry. In NM, the liquor section does not have a completely separate door (like in FL), but rather a separate walled-off without a different outside entrance.

    A case was brought to court where a man stopped a robbery with his handgun in a Wal-Mart in NM. It was one of the only Wal-Marts in that area that did not have a liquor section. If it had one, he would have been convicted of illegal carry. I hope that this quirky section of the law was changed.

  12. This summer I have to spend a week in Illinois. I would take NM over Illinois any day. I will probably be driving up from Florida and I can easily get to the Illinois state line while legally carrying on my Florida CCW, but I’m not sure I can even HAVE a gun in Illinois, and I know I can’t carry it there. I haven’t been back to Illinois for years because of this, but this trip isn’t optional, I promised my 6 yo that she could see grandpa. I’m still not sure how I’m going to handle this. I have some friends in Indiana that have a gun safe, I wonder how legal it would be to have them store a gun for me there so I will only be disarmed for the last leg of the trip. Hmmm… will have to research that option, I like to stay on the good side of the line.

    s

  13. Great article Mas. It makes one appreciate living in a state where gun laws make sense. I personally feel that carrying concealed should push one into condition yellow. With a need to protect oneself and the concealed weapon. With open carry I would feel like I’m always in condition red trying to protect myself from a gun snatcher. I don’t know how LEO’s deal with that on a daily basis.

  14. Mas, Great blog post. NM is strange. But you can carry more than one firearm but they have to be carried openly. You can only carry one concealed.

    Another good one is Oklahoma. Their law says you can’t carry anything larger than .45. I don’t think they realize a 45 ACP is .451. That is actually more than the law allows but many carry 45’s there.

    Then we have Louisiana. They have a law on the books that says you can carry in a Restaurant that has a class R license. They do sell alcohol in those restaurants. But then they have another law that states you can’t carry in any place that serves alcohol for consumption on the premises.

    I enjoy your Blog. Also you answering questions on Glock Talk. Thank you for taking the time to help those who have questions. It is greatly appreciated.

    Stay Safe, Gary Slider

  16. Santa Fe has collected quiet a few liberals, ex-hippies, and anti-gun nuts. As Santa Fe goes, so goes the state. former Governor Bill Richardson was part of Mr. Clintons regime!

    Much of the west is being taken over by a lot of left wingers fleeing the mess they made of their own state. That would be fine but they seem intent on making the same mistakes in their new home.

  17. Mas, great article (‘s). I live in Missouri, and have had my CCW for over two years now. They (MO) have restrictions like many other states, gun-free-zones and the such, but Mo. made them infractions if violated, not felonies like many states. We have not been able to get campus carry yet, objections from the usual sorts, but also from some on the right. So I guess my only complaint with most of these sites is, that it’s not only or always those on the left that are against us. I consider myself a moderate conservative, and yes I know many on here will turn their nose up at me, but I have very conservative friends who can’t understand CCW holders and especially campus carry.

  18. To Stuart the Viking: As a former Illinois resident who travels there frequently, you must unload your firearm before you reach the Illinois state line, then put the pistol ( or rifle or shotgun) in a case in an inaccessible part of your vehicle (trunk in a conventional car or way back in an SUV, van or pickup), then separate the ammo from the weapon. I’ve heard recently that the ammo does not need to be completely separate from the firearm, but to be safe keep it away.

    It may be bad, but it is not as bad as New Jersey, if that is any consolation. You cannot legally take any handgun into the city of Chicago. Obviously, not everyone follows these laws. You cannot purchase any ammunition in Illinois or handle a firearm in any Illinois guns store without an Illinois Firearms Owners ID card.

  19. It has long been predicted that the American SW will be engulfed in what are variously called these days asymmetric, low-grade or fourth generation warfare. The quasi political narco terrorist cartels of Mexico are going to wind up openly and flagrantly above the southern US border. One of the first targets are the LE officers. Co-opt them and things get much easier for the bad guys. LE trades sides, the local government follows and then we have lost essentially the battle without a shot being fired. Hezbollah is already on the border and we have a failed state in Mexico and her military. The crude central American gangs like MS13 are already here in strength. Immigrants are creating an irresistible force in NM, Ariz, CA. All will shortly have majority Latino populations. Now we start to see stories like this one out of New Mexico. It really doesn’t look good for the future of the American SW. I give it another 10 years.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110311/ap_on_re_us/us_border_mayor_gun_smuggling

  21. to Fred Bartlett

    unless things have changed, a non-resident can purchase ammo in IL without a FOID. at least shotgun ammo.

    thankfully, I’m no longer a resident of IL and as a non resident I bought 12ga steel shot in IL at a walmart during a pheasant hunting trip.

    that’s the nutty thing about the IL foid

  22. “Santa Fe has collected quiet a few liberals, ex-hippies, and anti-gun nuts. As Santa Fe goes, so goes the state. former Governor Bill Richardson was part of Mr. Clintons regime!”

    Bill Richardson also was OBAMA’s failed choice for a Cabinet nomination – whose nomination collapsed due to a grand-jury investigation into corruption in New Mexico politics.
    Richardson was one of the first failed nominations of Obama’s.

  23. Regarding: “No alcohol on premises, but some of us will trade Merlot for a Magnum any day.”

    How about a magnum of Merlot? 🙂