Judge Keeps Florida's Gun Waiting Period

A federal judge has refused to kill Florida's three-day firearm waiting period even though the state's own attorney general admitted it's unconstitutional.

State of play: On October 28, U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday denied a joint motion for final judgment in Dunn v. Glass, an NRA-backed challenge to Florida's mandatory delay on firearm purchases. Back in June, Attorney General James Uthmeier, FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass, and all 20 state attorneys agreed the waiting period burdens Second Amendment rights and can't survive the historical-tradition test from Bruen. The plaintiffs accepted the state's offer of judgment the same day. Everyone thought the case was over.

It wasn't. Merryday didn't rule the law constitutional — he ruled the parties can't use Rule 68 to settle a constitutional question this big without a real fight. He said nobody had briefed the legal arguments adequately, and he flagged two conflicting appellate rulings he wants addressed: Ortega v. Grisham (10th Circuit, striking part of New Mexico's seven-day wait) and Beckwith v. Frey (1st Circuit, upholding Maine's three-day wait).

The intrigue: Instead of just ordering more briefing from the actual parties, Merryday invited the Brady Center and Giffords Law Center — neither of which is a party to this lawsuit — to file amicus briefs defending a law Florida's own top cop says is illegal. He also invited the Governor and both chambers of the Legislature to weigh in. So a law every named defendant has already conceded violates the Constitution may now get defended in court by outside gun-control groups who were never sued and have no statutory duty to enforce it.

What gun owners should know: Under Florida law, buyers who clear their background check instantly still can't take possession of a firearm — any firearm, not just handguns — for three days. The 1998 constitutional amendment covered handguns; the Legislature expanded it to all firearms in 2018. For someone buying a gun for self-defense after a threat, that's not paperwork. That's the government holding the means of defense hostage for 72 hours after admitting it has no historical basis to do so.

What's next: Interested parties must notify the court by November 30, 2026, whether they're participating. Amicus briefs are due February 1, 2027, with the original parties filing their own briefs by February 19, 2027. Until then, Florida's waiting period stays in full effect.

The NRA says it remains confident the law will eventually fall, and it's not backing off. But "eventually" means another few months, at minimum, before a court even takes up the merits the state already conceded. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court just passed on Beckwith v. Frey, leaving Maine's waiting period standing, and the New Mexico fight over its seven-day delay is still active. Waiting-period litigation is turning into one of the messier fronts in post-Bruen gun law — not because courts are finding these laws constitutional, but because judges keep finding reasons not to rule at all.