ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico’s top prosecutor says he cannot undertake a defense of the governor’s public health order that suspends the right to carry firearms in public.

State Attorney General Raúl Torrez said Tuesday in a letter to the governor that gun violence cannot be rebranded as a public health emergency to justify a blanket prohibition against carrying firearms.

He said he agrees with the need to start a debate on the devastating impact of gun violence and urged the Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to consider whether her time would be better spent in developing comprehensive legislation instead.

The move exposes a divide between Lujan Grisham and Torrez, the state’s top-ranked elected Democrats, as they respond to a rash of gun violence and fatal shootings that claimed the lives of children.