Maine attorney general asks judge to restore 3-day waiting period for gun sales

By Kevin Miller, Maine Public

Maine’s attorney general is appealing a recent court decision that suspended a new law requiring gun buyers to wait three days before taking possession of the firearm.

Attorney General Aaron Frey is asking the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston to reinstate Maine’s three-day waiting period on gun purchases while the case plays out. In his filing, Assistant Attorney General Christopher Taub argued that waiting periods have been shown to prevent impulsive suicides and homicides. Taub said any harm caused to the groups challenging the law “pales in comparison to the harm prevented when lives are saved.”

Several gun dealers and a self-defense school instructor filed suit last year to block the new law on grounds that it infringes on Second Amendment rights. U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker suspended the law earlier this month, writing that it amounted to “indiscriminate dispossession, plain and simple.” But Taub noted that waiting period laws in multiple states have survived constitutional challenges.

This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.