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Gun rights groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday that seeks to overturn the 72-hour waiting period law that Maine lawmakers passed after last year’s mass shooting in Lewiston.
The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and Gun Owners of Maine had expressed their intent to sue after Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat who previously opposed sweeping gun-control measures, let the waiting period bill become law in April without her signature. The law took effect in early August and says gun dealers must wait 72 hours after making an “agreement” with a customer to turn the firearm over to them.
The waiting period violates people’s Second Amendment rights, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court of Maine in Bangor. The lawsuit against Attorney General Aaron Frey is filed by five Mainers: Andrea Beckwith, owner of East Coast School of Safety; Rep. James Lee White, R-Guilford, and owner of J White Gunsmithing; Adam Hendsbee, owner of A&G Shooting; Thomas Cole, owner of TLC Gunsmithing; and Nancy Coshow of Bridgton, who had to wait to buy a gun.
A challenge to Maine’s law enacting the 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases has been expected since it took effect this summer. It was the most prominent piece of legislation to pass in the state in the wake of the mass shooting in Lewiston that killed 18 people and injured 13 more.
It does so by preventing people from taking a gun home when they buy it, the lawsuit said. It delays people’s rights “for the sake of delay, on the theory that even law-abiding citizens who have passed a background check cannot be trusted with a firearm,” the lawsuit said.
While the agreements do not need to be put in writing, the state has advised gun shops to keep documentation of agreements so questions can be answered if sales are called into question. Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine leader David Trahan had argued the guidance and law are a “mess” because the state is asking dealers to retain records they are not required to keep.
The 72-hour period is concurrent with the time it takes to run a federally mandated background check. Maine joined 12 other states in requiring some kind of waiting period, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. Exempt are sales to family members and police officers along with sales of antique firearms and “temporary” transfers for guided hunts, among other activities.
Violators face a maximum fine of $500 for a first offense and $1,000 for a repeat offense. In April, Mills had advised Frey and Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck to monitor legal challenges to waiting periods in other states, such as Vermont.
In July, a federal judge rejected an attempt by gun rights groups to halt Vermont’s waiting period law and its ban on high-capacity magazines. The challengers cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bruen decision in 2022 against a New York law tied to concealed carry permit applications.
The proposal from Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, was one of several gun control and mental health measures from Democratic lawmakers after the Oct. 25, 2023, rampage at a Lewiston bowling alley and bar in Maine’s deadliest-ever mass shooting. The gunman, a 40-year-old Army reservist from Bowdoin, legally purchased his semi-automatic rifle several months before the shooting and before he received psychiatric treatment in New York.
But Rotundo and supporters said the waiting period law will help reduce suicides in Maine, where 158 of 178 firearm deaths in 2021 were suicides. Studies have found waiting periods of between two and seven days can lower risks of suicide and domestic violence shootings, while little empirical evidence exists to support a claim they delay victims in getting self-protection.
Mills also signed into law this spring a background check expansion, “yellow flag” tweaks and investments in mental health services while vetoing a bump stock ban.
