Twenty-five states just told the Supreme Court that Maine cannot force law-abiding gun buyers to sit and wait three days before they can take their own firearm home.
Quick Take
- A Montana-led group of 25 states asked the Supreme Court to strike down Maine’s 72-hour gun waiting period.
- Maine’s law blocks delivery of a firearm even after a buyer passes a background check instantly.
- A domestic violence survivor says she passed her check, paid for a gun, and still went home unarmed.
- The First Circuit upheld Maine’s law in April, creating a split with a tougher Tenth Circuit ruling on a similar law.
States Rally Behind Maine Gun Buyers
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen led 24 other state attorneys general, plus the Arizona Legislature, in filing a brief asking the Supreme Court to take up Beckwith v. Frey. The brief was filed September 28, backing Maine gun owners and dealers who sued to overturn the state’s 2024 waiting-period law. The coalition argues the case gives the justices a clean chance to settle whether states can delay a citizen’s right to take possession of a gun they already lawfully bought.
Maine enacted its law in 2024, and it took effect that August. Under the statute, a seller cannot hand over a firearm until 72 hours pass after the buyer and seller agree on the sale. That wait applies even when the federal background check clears within minutes, meaning the government, not the buyer’s record, becomes the reason a gun stays on a store shelf.
A Stalking Victim’s Fight Reaches the High Court
Among the plaintiffs is a domestic violence survivor who passed her background check and paid for a handgun, only to be sent home without it because of the mandatory delay. Her petition, filed August 25 alongside gun dealers and instructors, argues the law strips at-risk citizens of protection during the exact window when danger is often highest.
The petition states Maine’s law requires nearly everyone in the state to wait 72 hours after buying a firearm before they may keep and bear it, language the plaintiffs say conflicts directly with Second Amendment text protecting the right to possess arms without government-imposed delay, not just the right to eventually own one.
Federal Courts Split on Cooling-Off Laws
A federal judge first blocked Maine’s law in February 2025, ruling it could not survive the Supreme Court’s historical test from Bruen because citizens were “dispossessed of one for 72 hours exclusively” because they exercised a constitutional right. The First Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision in April 2026, calling the law a “modest delay” and a “non-abusive effort” by Maine to address gun violence.
That ruling now clashes with a decision from the Tenth Circuit, which struck down New Mexico’s seven-day waiting period in 2025 after finding it likely violated the Second Amendment. Legal analysts have flagged the conflict between circuits as exactly the kind of split the Supreme Court typically steps in to resolve.
Gun Rights Groups Demand a Final Answer
The National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation filed their own brief September 22, urging the justices to grant review and settle the question nationwide. The groups argue waiting periods have no grounding in the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation and directly burden the plain text of the Second Amendment.
Illinois faces a nearly identical fight, where the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation sued over a 72-hour rule that makes early delivery a felony, even for buyers who already cleared their background check. With multiple states defending similar laws, a Supreme Court ruling in the Maine case would likely reach far beyond New England.
Sources:
supremecourt.gov, usacarry.com, newsmax.com, everytownlaw.org, nraila.org, firearmslaw.duke.edu, news.bloomberglaw.com
