Fox’s first appearance — Conservative legal groups and gun rights activists have banded together to challenge New Mexico’s newly enacted seven-day waiting period for gun purchases.
The Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) joins the National Rifle Association (NRA) in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that claims New Mexico denies its citizens their Second Amendment rights and right to natural self-defense. We partnered with. The group argues in court documents that the waiting period law passed by the Democratic-controlled Legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is unconstitutional.
“This arbitrary law is just the latest attempt by Governor Grisham and his anti-gun allies in the New Mexico State Legislature to limit the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding voters.” said Mike McCoy, director of the Weapons Preservation and Carrying Center. In MSLF.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for New Mexico, names Grisham and New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez (D) as defendants.
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New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham speaks at the New Mexico State Capitol on January 30, 2024 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Grisham signed HB 129 in March, requiring a seven-day waiting period for firearm purchases. (Sam Wasson/Getty Images)
Grisham signed House Bill 129 into law in March, which went into effect Wednesday and requires a seven-day waiting period for firearm purchases. During this period, sellers are required to conduct an immediate federal background check on buyers. If the background check takes him more than seven days, the seller must wait to release the firearm to the buyer until the background check is complete.
Violators face misdemeanor charges, according to the New Mexico Department of Public Safety.
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“This bill gets to the heart of the issues that are keeping New Mexicans up at night,” Grisham said in a statement after signing the bill. “Too many lives are lost because guns are in the wrong hands and violent criminals are allowed to reoffend over and over again. This legislation will address both.”
In court documents, New Mexico plaintiffs Paul Samuel Ortega and Rebecca Scott argue that the waiting period law “imposes a burden on the right to keep and bear arms.” The plaintiffs also allege that the state “never lived up to the burden of establishing a historical analog to justify the regulation.”
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Several AR-15 style rifles are on display for sale at gun stores. Under New Mexico law, gun dealers must wait seven days and conduct a federal background check before handing over purchased firearms to buyers. (Reuters/Bing Guan)
The lawsuit cites the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which established a new standard for determining whether gun regulations are unconstitutional. To meet that standard, the government must show that there is a “historical tradition of firearm regulation” that supports the law in question.
Since Bruen, numerous federal and state gun control measures have been challenged in court, with mixed results.
“The Second Amendment protects an individual’s private right to keep and bear arms for purposes of self-defense, but this ridiculous waiting period law makes it impossible for law-abiding citizens to have this God-given right to keep and bear arms.” It’s delaying their ability to exercise their rights,” McCoy told Fox News. Digital.
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Guns will be on display in the store during the Rod of Iron Freedom Festival on October 9, 2022 in Greeley, Pennsylvania. The Mountain States Legal Foundation and the National Rifle Association are partnering to challenge New Mexico’s waiting period law on constitutional grounds. (Spencer Pratt/Getty Images)
“Forcing domestic violence victims who need a firearm to protect themselves to wait seven days before getting one is wrong, and we want abusers to ‘wait a week’ before attacking again. I hope,” he added.
“The NRA is proud to partner with the Mountain States Legal Foundation to challenge New Mexico’s waiting period law,” said Randy Kozucci, executive director of the NRA Legislative Action Institute. “This new law clearly violates the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding New Mexicans, and the NRA is working to ensure this unconstitutional law is purged from state law.”
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MSLF said the plaintiffs are seeking “nothing more than a complete invalidation of the law by a federal court and a return to constitutional common sense.”
The governor’s and attorney general’s offices did not respond to requests for comment.
