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.

THREE-DAY WAIT

Walker spent much of Tuesday’s hourlong hearing drilling into both parties’ arguments.

Murphy argued that waiting for three days to acquire a gun is excessive, given the state’s existing background check system can be completed in minutes, during the time it takes to ring up a firearm. Plus, Murphy said, this law unfairly treats every gun purchaser as if they “indiscriminately pose the same threat” of homicide or suicide.

She said the 72-hour law doesn’t allow for any way to bypass the waiting period and that some of her clients may need an immediate way to defend themselves, like when facing threats from an abusive partner or immediately after a breakin.

The judge pushed her to address the state’s argument that suicide, especially by gun, has become a novel problem in society. He asked if the issue deserves a more nuanced approach, rather than just adhering to what the text of what the Constitution says.

Murphy said whatever nuance the state may provide isn’t enough to erase history, which assumes that anyone is allowed to own a firearm and shouldn’t have those rights restricted.

THE BRUEN TEST

Walker’s ruling could come down to a landmark 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, New York Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which has made it more difficult to enact gun safety legislation. Murphy works for Clement & Murphy, the national firm that argued the Bruen case and other gun rights battles in front of the Supreme Court.

The result of the Bruen case was that any limitations on such rights must be “narrow, definite and objective.”

Nothing about Maine’s 72- hour law is “narrow,” Murphy said.

“The sole trigger for this (law) is the fact that someone chooses to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” Murphy said. “That cannot be a basis for treating citizens with suspicion.”

The judge seemed persuaded by that argument, telling Taub that he doesn’t see what’s “narrow or definite” about a “broad statute” that applies to every citizen. He said he isn’t sure that the “naked presumption” that people may be purchasing guns impulsively fits with the court’s directive.

Taub said lawmakers put the rule in place to curb impulsive firearms purchases. Multiple courts have upheld that waiting periods and other laws that require gun owners to take a gun safety course do not violate people’s constitutional rights, he said.

Ideally, he said gun stores would need resources on top of the background check that would determine whether the buyer poses a risk to themselves or others. Also, gun sales have become more accessible since the Constitution was written, and firearms are more capable of killing people now, Taub said.

For now, Taub said, while the law could be narrower, this waiting period is the only option to save lives.

Morgan Womack — (207) 791-6216
mwomack@metln.org