{"id":116118,"date":"2026-04-09T14:47:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=116118"},"modified":"2026-04-09T14:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:48:08","slug":"116118","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=116118","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Maine: Federal Appeals Court Upholds 3-Day Waiting Period Law For Firearm Purchases<\/a><\/p>\n

A federal appeals court has ruled that Maine\u2019s law requiring a three-day waiting period between firearm purchases and taking possession of a gun to be constitutional.<\/p>\n

On April 3, a three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st<\/sup>\u00a0Circuit Court of Appeals reversed last year\u2019s decision by Maine\u2019s chief federal judge that blocked enforcement of the law on Second Amendment grounds. In a nutshell, the circuit court ruled that the law is a \u201cburden on, but not an infringement of, the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.\u201d<\/p>\n

In what seems to be strained logic, the court ruled that the law regulates conduct before a person keeps and bears arms, thus not infringing upon actually keeping and bearing arms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe agree with the Attorney General\u2019s view that laws regulating the purchase or acquisition of firearms do not target conduct covered by the Second Amendment\u2019s \u2018plain text,\u2019\u201d the court wrote in the case\u00a0Beckwith v. Frey<\/a><\/em>. \u201cThe Amendment\u2019s plain text guarantees an individual\u2019s ability to keep and bear arms, which means to have a carry guns. The Act does not address this conduct. Rather, the Act imposes a limitation in some circumstances on when a person can acquire a firearm after the person purchased it. The act thus regulates conduct that occurs before a person keeps or carries a gun.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, anti-gun supporters of the law cheered the court\u2019s ruling as a major step for so-called \u201cgun safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re relieved to see the federal court of appeals make the correct decision in this case,\u201d the\u00a0Maine Gun Safety Coalition<\/a>\u00a0(MGSC) said in a written statement. \u201cWaiting periods between purchase and possession don\u2019t prevent anyone from exercising their right to own a gun. Instead, they provide a valuable cooling off period that helps prevent impulsive acts of violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllowing this common-sense law to finally go into effect is an important way to help prevent suicides and other forms of gun violence in Maine.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gun-rights groups, on the other hand, disagreed with the ruling and vowed to appeal.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think it\u2019ll hold up in time, obviously,\u201d David Trahan, executive director of the\u00a0Sportsman\u2019s Alliance of Maine<\/a>\u00a0(SAM), told\u00a0newscentermaine.com<\/a>. \u201cThis isn\u2019t the end of the story, and we\u2019ll see what the next layer of court says.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, a three-judge panel of the 10th<\/sup>\u00a0Circuit Court of Appeals came to\u00a0the opposite conclusion<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Ortega v. Grisham<\/em><\/a>, a lawsuit challenging New Mexico\u2019s seven-day waiting period.<\/p>\n

\u201cCooling-off periods infringe on the Second Amendment by preventing the lawful acquisition of firearms,\u201d the court ruling stated. \u201cCooling off periods do not fit into any historically grounded exceptions to the right to keep and bear arms, and burden conduct within the Second Amendment\u2019s scope. In this preliminary posture, we conclude that New Mexico\u2019s Waiting Period Act is likely an unconstitutional burden on the Second Amendment rights of its citizens. We also conclude the other preliminary injunction factors are met and that Plaintiffs are entitled to an injunction.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maine: Federal Appeals Court Upholds 3-Day Waiting Period Law For Firearm Purchases A federal appeals court has ruled that Maine\u2019s law requiring a three-day waiting period between firearm purchases and taking possession of a gun to be constitutional. On April 3, a three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st\u00a0Circuit Court of Appeals reversed last year\u2019s decision … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,11,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courts","category-crap-for-brains","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116118"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116121,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116118\/revisions\/116121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}