Judge Slaps Injunction Against Maine’s 72-hr Waiting Period

The state of Maine has had its first serious pushback against its 72-hour waiting period on firearm sales, with a district court judge slapping an injunction against the state’s recent foray into increasingly restrictive gun control.

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The story so far

Although Maine has long been considered a state with a very laissez-faire approach to firearms regulation, with permit-less open and concealed carry and no restrictions on semi-auto rifles that are found elsewhere in New England, this has started to change in recent years. The state legislature tried to ban bump stocks in 2024, but Governor Janet Mills vetoed that move. The year before, Senator Angus King (formerly Maine’s governor) was behind the Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearms Exclusion (GOSAFE) Act, which tried to restrict firearms owners to rifles with fixed 10-round magazines, along with several other attacks on firearms owners, such as a ban on assembling your own firearm.

Clearly, the winds of change are blowing through the Pine Street State, and this became even more obvious in 2024 when the state’s legislators approved a law requiring a 72-hour waiting period on any firearm purchase. In other words: Buy a gun 8 a.m. Monday morning, and you can’t actually pick it up until 8 a.m. Thursday morning.

In a state where rural culture is closely tied to hunting season, this is obviously a big issue for gun owners, not to mention anyone paying attention to firearms rights. Late in 2024, several parties signed on to a lawsuit, hoping to get the law overthrown.

Not a win, but a step forward

That lawsuit is still working its way through the courts, but the parties suing Maine’s state government got a significant win on Thursday, February 13, when U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker granted a preliminary injunction against the state’s mandatory waiting period law. In other words: He hasn’t struck down the law, but while the case is ongoing, there’s a temporary hold on the waiting period.

In the early stages of this case, the state argued to Walker that the Second Amendment might protect the right to bear arms but does not protect the right to acquire those arms. The judge did not seem to agree with this and put Maine’s law on hold for now. You can see his decision here.