Gun Rights Groups Sue Maine Over 72-Hour Waiting Period

The plaintiffs say the waiting period to buy a gun doesn’t align with the time it takes to conduct background checks.

A selection of Sig Sauer pistols at the Kittery Trading Post in Kittery, Maine, on Aug. 9, 2024. Charles Krupa/AP Photo

Gun rights groups filed a lawsuit against the state of Maine on Nov. 12 over its recently passed law requiring a 72-hour waiting period to purchase firearms.

The coalition claims that the waiting period is unconstitutional and is requesting a pause on the enforcement of the law until the outcome of the case is determined.

The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine (SAM), Gun Owners of Maine, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation have joined in the legal challenge to the state law passed in August.

“Responsible gun owners should never have to wait to exercise the right to defend themselves and their property, and the 72-Hour waiting period law is an affront to that right the likes of which has never been seen in our state,” SAM said in a statement.

“As evidenced by the other gun rights legal proceedings that have transpired across the country, we felt it was important to make sure that the filing of this legal challenge is complete and without any room for error.”

According to the complaint, the waiting period doesn’t align with the time it takes to conduct background checks but instead “forces law-abiding citizens to wait 72 hours to acquire a firearm even if they pass the requisite background check in a matter of minutes, which most people do.”

“The law is instead just an unadorned effort to delay the exercise of Second Amendment rights, on the theory that people who seek to acquire firearms are likely animated by murderous or suicidal intentions that may subside if they are forced to wait out a three-day ‘cooling-off period,’” the lawsuit states.

“That kind of ‘cooling-off period’ measure has no historical pedigree whatsoever—and, indeed, would have been ‘unimaginable at the founding.’”

Maine’s Deadliest Mass Shooting

The state law was passed almost a year after Maine’s deadliest mass shooting, in which a U.S. Army reservist fatally shot 18 people at a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, in October 2023.

The shooter, who was later found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was reported to have had a history of mental illness, which prompted lawmakers to push for stricter gun regulations.

The legislation’s sponsor, state Rep. Peggy Rotundo, a Democrat, said she believes that requiring people to wait before purchasing a firearm “will save lives and many families.”

Nacole Palmer, who heads the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, said the lawsuit came as no surprise but that it is nonetheless “disappointing that the gun lobby is moving forward with challenging a law that will save Mainers’ lives and is supported by a wealth of evidence.”

Attorney General Aaron Frey—listed as a defendant in the lawsuit—didn’t respond by publication time to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.