imported post
I am a law enforcement certified firearms instructor for the state of New Mexico, a certified concealed carry instructor (#37)and a police officer. I have worked many hours enforcing the alcohol laws in New Mexico and I am very familiar with the laws.
Since the ballon festival serves alcohol in the beer gardens, it would be a 4th degree felony to carry a firearm of any kind, open or concealed, loaded or unloaded, into the beer garden area. Outside the area, you must abide by the wishes of the management of the festival. If they post NO FIREARMS, you must abide by it, or possibly lose your concealed carry permit. If you refuse to abide by their wishes you can be charged with a petty misdemeanor criminal trespass and have your handgun confiscated as evidence.
I have worked with a concealed carry instructor from Clovis this past year (2007) and we were successful in getting a revision passed in the 2007 legislature to NMSA 30-7-3, "Unlawful carrying of a firearm in licensed liquor establishments."
The change, effective July 1, 2007,(NMSA 30-7-3 para. A, subpara. 4) allows this exception to the prohibition: " by a person carrying a concealed handgun who is in possession of a valid concealed handgun license for that gun pursuant to the Concealed Handgun Carry Act [29-19-1 NMSA 1978]; provided that the licensed establishment does not sell alcoholic peverages for consumption on the premises."
This change to the statute 30-7-3, allows ONLY a peson with a concealed carry permit to go into businesses such as: Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Circle K, etc. with a concealed handgun. Open carry into any establishment that sells alcohol is still a 4th degree felony.
So, if you do not have a concealed carry permit, DO NOT carry a firearm into any establishment that sells alcohol. YOU WILL BE ARRESTED AND WILL PROBABLY BE CONVICTED AND NEVER BE ALLOWED TO OWN A FIREARM AGAIN!
We are working on changing the law to allow concealed carry into a restuarant, but we have had 8 arrests in New Mexico for concealed carry permit holders going into restaurants that serve alcohol and they were arrested while drinking at their table. That makes it nearly impossible to convince any of our legislatures to allow carry into a restaurant with alcohol. (A close officer friend of mine, here in Las Cruces, arrested two of those permit holders. Both stated they had not been informed of this by their CCW instructors.)(So be very careful who you select for your CCW instructor.)
If you have any changes you would like to see changed pertaining to concealed carry, you may contact me at:
gpshrader@aol.com
Thanks.