GOP lawmakers seek rollback of 72-hour waiting period, background checks for certain firearm sales
Tim Russell of Sydney was among the minority of demonstrators on Jan. 3, 2024 who protested in support of gun rights. (Photo by Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star)
After scraping by with razor-thin support last session and pending questions about its legality, Maine's 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases is before lawmakers again as Republicans seek to repeal it.
Last session, the Legislature passed a bill requiring a three-day waiting period after someone purchases a gun before they can bring it home as part of a slew of gun safety legislation in the aftermath of the deadly Lewiston mass shooting. The law is currently suspended amid a legal challenge questioning its constitutionality, but legislators are still seeking to do away with it in Maine statute.
After lawmakers voted to enact the bill 73-70 in the House of Representatives and 18-17 in the Senate, Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat who has a history of support for gun rights, allowed it to become law but did not endorse it with her signature. At the time, she said she was conflicted over what she saw as the burden it placed on law-abiding citizens, while also understanding the argument that it could save lives by preventing impulsive suicides and homicides.
After the waiting period took effect in August, opponents filed a lawsuit in November claiming it violates the Second Amendment rights of people who have passed background checks.
Earlier this year, a U.S. District Court judge sided with the gun rights advocates and temporarily paused the waiting period. Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey appealed the decision, but a federal appeals court last week refused to reinstate the waiting period while the lawsuit unfolds.
Meanwhile, the Legislature's Judiciary Committee is set to hold a public hearing Wednesday morning for two proposals to repeal the law entirely. Both bills would repeal the portion of Maine statute that requires someone who sells a firearm to wait 72 hours before delivering it to the buyer.
LD 208 is sponsored by House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor), while the nearly identical LD 1230 is sponsored by Rep. Quentin Chapman (R-Auburn).
The committee will also hear a proposal from Rep. Jennifer Poirier (R-Skowhegan) to roll back another gun reform measure passed last session: background checks on the private sales of firearms.
Specifically, LD 1062 would repeal a law that was part of a slate of reforms introduced by Mills in response to the Lewiston shooting that expanded background checks to advertised sales.
During last year's House discussion ahead of the floor vote on the bill, proponents said it closed a loophole in Maine's background check law without requiring universal background checks — which Mainers narrowly voted down in a 2016 referendum. But opponents argued it was an infringement of Second Amendment rights that would only further burden law-abiding citizens.
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