Maine's waiting period fight just got reset. The First Circuit put the 72-hour law back in effect after reversing a district judge who'd blocked it — and the reasoning is worth paying attention to if you care about where gun rights law is heading.

"The (law) briefly delays acquisitions of firearms from commercial dealers. But it does not prevent a law-abiding and responsible citizen from obtaining and then keeping or bearing a firearm after fulfilling the waiting period requirement."

That's the legal line courts keep drawing — burden versus infringement — and it's been holding up in most circuits. The district judge who blocked it called it "indiscriminate dispossession," which is the more honest description of what it actually feels like when you've already cleared a background check and still have to come back in three days.

The court also pointed out that 72 hours mirrors the maximum window federal law gives NICS to return a result. That's a clever anchor — Maine says it's just matching federal timing, not adding to it. Whether that framing holds at full trial is another question, but it's harder to argue against.

Idaho has no waiting period and nothing moving in the legislature right now — but these circuit decisions build the scaffolding that future cases get argued inside. If this reaches SCOTUS, the "burden vs. infringement" framework is what both sides will be swinging at.

Have you ever been in a state with a waiting period during a purchase? Curious how LGS staff handle that conversation when a buyer has already passed the background check and is just... waiting.

Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett