I carried a Glock 43 the whole length of NM this spring. I know open carry is legal there; I didn’t look into mag limits as my little backpacking gun only holds 6 + 1. I bought my first real gun in ABQ in the late 70’s as a teenager. Not even sure I had to show an ID. Had that rifle behind the seat of my truck all through high school. How times have changed. Ugh.
NM is a complex place. Those who know, know what I mean. I’m not going into it too deep here. If ever there was a place to keep front-of-mind that other folks can be living in a whole other cultural reality than yours, yet be just as American as you are, it’s there. The town I grew up in has the oldest church in North America. The place (NM) is just steeped in history, much of it very dark. I can and have taken people to places, just random-seeming places in the desert, where you are literally crunching along on the shards of those who came before you. In NM, almost unique in this way, many of those cultures are still more or less intact, albeit not always thriving. It’s heavy. It’s real. It’s gorgeous. It’s New Mexico.
