No gun control law goes into effect without being challenged in court. That's how it should be, as all of them are an infringement on the right to keep and bear arms. They should all get challenged.
Now, Maine's new waiting period is up before a federal judge because of such a challenge, and that means at least the possibility of a temporary halt to it.
It shouldn't be a hard decision, but we're having to wait on it just the same.
A Supreme Court ruling that made it more difficult to enact gun safety legislation could jeopardize Maine’s new three-day waiting period for gun purchases.
U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker heard arguments Tuesday about whether to pause the 72-hour rule enacted by the Legislature last year while the courts consider a lawsuit that alleges it violates the Second Amendment.
Andrea Beckwith, who runs self-defense classes for victims of domestic violence, Rep. James White, who owns J. White Gunsmithing, and other Maine gun stores and gun owners, filed a lawsuit in November against state Attorney General Aaron Frey in U.S. District Court in Bangor.
Erin Murphy, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said the new law “strikes at the very heart of the Second Amendment” because making people wait to acquire their firearm, even if they have already passed a background check, directly conflicts with her clients’ right to keep and bear arms.
The Office of the Maine Attorney General has said lawmakers put the rule in place to curb impulsive firearms purchases, and courts have upheld that this type of waiting period does not violate people’s constitutional rights, said Chief Deputy Attorney General Christopher Taub.
Walker didn’t issue a ruling after a Tuesday morning hearing in Portland; he said he would take the matter under advisement and make a decision in the next few days. The attorney general’s office declined to comment on the case after the hearing, and attorneys for the plaintiffs did not respond to requests for an interview.
One of the big hurdles for the law is going to be the Bruen decision.
That decision requires a historical analog that suggests the Founding Fathers favored a restriction like that. For example, they prohibited drunks from carrying guns, so something akin to that would be acceptable in the eyes of the courts.
The problem with the waiting period is that no such analog exists. There was nothing on the books remotely similar, either. Not up until relatively modern times, which isn't the standard used by the Supreme Court in Bruen.
So that alone justifies the pause, pending the law being overturned by the court. Of course, Maine will likely appeal, then march it up the judicial chain where hopefully, the Supreme Court will smack it down like a thunderbolt from God.
In the process, it'll put a permanent end to waiting periods as a whole.
It won't stop efforts to put some kind of stupid restrictions in place, or playing games with people's ability to buy a gun in a timely manner, but it'll definitely be a lot harder for lawmakers. Plus, the new restrictions can and should be slapped down.
However, that's a dangerous game to play by itself. We can't perpetually trust the courts to act appropriately, nor can we count on the Supreme Court to act at all.
Still, for Maine, it'll be a move in the right direction and it'll put an end to this particular bit, hopefully. However, first we need the pause, and that's not exactly guaranteed.
For the good people of that state, I hope they get it and get this law overturned in a quick, timely manner because this is downright idiotic, especially as they used Lewiston to justify this and it would have had no impact on Lewiston at all.
