Gun purchase law in limbo
By V. Paul Reynolds
In August of last year, a Maine law went into effect that required gun buyers to wait for 72 hours before leaving a store with the gun that they had purchased.
Obviously, gun owners, gun dealers, hunters, recreational shooters and just about anyone who believed in the constitutional right to bear arms were surprised, if not stunned, that Gov. Mills allowed this law to take effect without her signature. David Trahan, executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, who had found Mills to be reasonable about gun legislation, was as stunned and disappointed as anyone.
Trahan served notice to Mills that SAM would work to challenge the gun waiting law and take it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. SAM,in collaboration with the Gun Owners of Maine and some other gun rights groups, plans to do just that. A significant sum of money has been raised by SAM to underwrite the legal expenses of going to court, and a highly credentialed Washington constitutional attorney has been retained.
Back in August, this column reported that “This wrong-headed new law is ripe for a challenge, not only because it chips away at Second Amendment privileges and pushes the envelope of Constitutionality, but because of the long-term economic harm it imposes upon an important and historic segment of Maine businesses and their future economic vitality.”
The good news is that a federal judge, Lance Walker, on Feb. 13th imposed a pause on this gun purchase waiting law. The judge granted a preliminary injunction, which will allow gun dealers and purchasers to go on about their business without the 72-hour purchase impediment, at least for the time being.
Walker really didn’t mince words in his ruling. According to the Bangor Daily News, the judge said,”Acquiring a firearm is a necessary step in keeping and bearing arms, and any other interpretation requires ”interpretative jui jitsu.”
More good news. Just last week a federal appeals court in Boston, in effect, upheld Judge Walker’s ruling by denying the appeal of Maine’s Attorney General Aaron Frey to overrule Judge Walker and restore Maine’s gun purchase waiting law.
Of course, these are all just preliminary legal steps in what is likely to be a protracted legal process that could wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court. At this juncture, it is looking more and more like the state’s assertion that the new law requiring gun buyers to wait 72 hours to take possession of a legally purchased firearm is unlikely to pass constitutional muster.
Interestingly, the gun waiting laws have been passed in a number of other states. The U.S. Supreme Court has in the past refused to hear these kinds of cases. Trahan and his fellow gun rights advocates believe that in time this issue will have to be decided by the high court, which of course means that the Maine challenge to the 72-hour waiting law could well have national implications.
Stay tuned!
The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide and host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. He has authored three books. Online purchase information is available at www.sportingjournal.com, Outdoor Books.