Preliminary Injunction Halts Maine’s 72-Hour Firearm Waiting Period

On February 13, a Federal Judge in Maine issued a preliminary injunction against the state’s mandatory 72-hour waiting period to obtain a firearm, chalking up another pro-Second Amendment ruling.

In the case of Beckwith v. Frey, in the United States District Court for the District of Maine, Chief U.S. District Judge Lance E. Walker granted the plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunctive relief in a 17-page decision.

The case is a challenge to a Maine law that went into effect August 9, 2024, which outlaws the delivery of firearms from sellers to buyers before a 72-hour waiting period elapses. The law is enforced against sellers, and violators are subject to an increasing schedule of fines for each occurrence.

The law was passed in response to the October 2023 Lewiston shooting in which 40-year-old Robert Card shot and killed 18 people. We now know, due to the investigation of an independent commission, that there were massive failures in both the federal government and law enforcement where they missed numerous opportunities to intervene and potentially prevent the massacre.

Judge Walker references both Heller and Bruen and concluded, “Because the act of acquiring a firearm, including by purchase, falls within the ambit of what it means to keep and bear arms, it is presumptively protected by the Second Amendment.”

He also deduced that, “If a citizen cannot take possession of a firearm, then his or her right to possess a firearm or to carry it away is indeed curtailed, even if, as Frey claims, the curtailment is modest.”

In keeping with the Bruen test, Judge Walker notes, “In fact, there is no readily comparable precedent before the Twentieth Century.”

The Judge also argues that the Act is in essence a disarmament scheme:

Viewed dispassionately, the Act employs no standard at all to justify disarming individuals, let alone a standard that can be described as narrow, objective, or definite. Consequently, I find that Plaintiffs have demonstrated that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their Second Amendment claim.

The state is likely to appeal this decision, and we will continue to follow this case.