Mayor with gun protests high security at New Mexico Capitol
All Nathan Dial wanted was a piece of paper explaining the rules. The automatic pistol he wore on his right hip might have delayed a response to his request.
Dial, 50, mayor of the small Southern New Mexico town of Estancia, went to the state Capitol on Tuesday not only to hear Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s first State of the State address, but to get written confirmation of new rules banning weapons of all kinds during joint sessions of the state House and Senate – such as the one in which the governor gave in her speech.
“Every time I see some infringement on the Second Amendment, I don’t just follow blindly,” said the soft-spoken U.S. Army veteran on the opening day of the 2019 legislative session. “I seek clarity. I understand there is a safety issue, but why is there a safety issue here all of a sudden?”
Dial, who took his oath of office 10 months ago with a gun on his hip, said he’s attended many sessions at the Capitol in past years while openly armed and never encountered a problem.
On Tuesday (Jan. 15), however, he faced Capitol security guards and New Mexico State Police officers who were present to enforce the new weapons ban, implemented by the Legislative Council in December.
In a 60-day session, like this one, lawmakers usually hold six to 12 joint sessions in the House chamber, said Raúl Burciaga, director of the Legislative Council Service, an arm of state government that drafts bills for legislators.
Security guards and state police were polite and professional, Dial said, and no one tried to disarm him of his pistol, held in a U.S. Cavalry holster that dated back to at least the 1940s.
But they did not allow him into the House chamber for Lujan Grisham’s address.
Instead, they referred him to one of three committee hearing rooms on the third floor of the Capitol, where the speech was being simulcast for overflow visitors who could not get a seat in the House gallery, already packed with some 300 people.
He wondered why weapons were not banned in the committee rooms.
“If guns are such a threat,” Dial said, “are [legislators] saying they are more important than their constituents in those rooms?”
About 100 spectators in one of those rooms had to contend with a poor-quality simulcast that broke up several times during the governor’s talk.
They missed much of the business that comes before the State of the State, such as legislative staff appointments and a House vote that led to Rep. Brian Egolf, a Santa Fe Democrat, being elected again as speaker.
There were few other complaints from the hundreds of people who had lined up as early as 10 a.m. to make their way through a security checkpoint outside the House chamber.
Capitol security officers swept electronic wands over each visitor and their belongings, such as backpacks, to check for firearms and other weapons. Some larger bags were left on a table outside the House chamber.
Police officers and security guards said they did not find any weapons, aside from the one on Dial, and reported no other problems.
Raphael Baca, the Capitol’s building superintendent, also said he had received no reports of problems on the security line.
The crowd gathered to hear Lujan Grisham, overwhelmingly favored the new governor, and offering several enthusiastic standing ovations during her 50-minute address and breaking into a collective chant of “MLG” at the end.
About an hour later, Baca gave Dial a draft of the new weapons ban. Dial said he planned to post it on his Facebook page and talk with a regional National Rifle Association representative about it.
If he were going to get arrested at the Capitol, Dial said, “I don’t want it to be for carrying firearms, but for disorderly conduct. But I’m not being disorderly.”