Maine gun rights advocates filed a federal lawsuit in Bangor on Wednesday seeking to overturn the state’s new three-day waiting period for purchasing firearms.

The plaintiffs, including Rep. James White, a Guilford Republican who is also a gunsmith, say the waiting period is unnecessary and unconstitutional.

“(The law) does not purport to be bound by the time required to conduct a background check or any other investigative efforts to determine whether someone is disqualified from exercising their Second Amendment rights,” the suit says. “On the contrary, it forces law-abiding citizens to wait 72 hours to purchase a firearm, even if they pass the required background check in minutes, which most people do.”

The law is one of several passed last session in response to the mass shooting in Lewiston that killed 18 people.

Two prominent gun rights groups in Maine – the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and Gun Owners of Maine – vowed to challenge the law soon after it was passed. In August, the groups announced that their legal challenge would be funded by the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

The plaintiffs are White, J. White Gunsmithing, Andrea Beckworth, East Coast School of Safety, Adam Hendsbee, A&G Shooting, Thomas Cole and TLC Gunsmithing and Armory. They are represented by a team of attorneys, including Josh Tardy of Bangor.

The lawsuit was filed with Attorney General Aaron Frey in Bangor District Court.

The lawsuit comes as gun safety advocates collect signatures for a citizen initiative to pass an additional gun safety measure that failed to pass last year. Those efforts aim to create an extreme risk protection order program, or red law, that would allow family members and police to ask a court to restrict access to firearms of someone deemed to be a danger to themselves or others .

Maine has a similar law, but does not allow family members to petition the court. Instead, the police must take someone into protective custody and have them undergo a mental health evaluation before a petition can be filed in court.

The waiting period bill narrowly passed last session by a margin of three votes in the House and one vote in the Senate. Gov. Janet Mills said she was “deeply conflicted” about the bill when she allowed the bill to go into effect without her signature. The law entered into force on August 9.

Internal communications obtained by the Press Herald through a public records request showed that Mills’ chief legal counsel requested that a veto letter be drafted while Mills was considering whether to sign the bill.

Advocates of the bill said a waiting period could help reduce gun violence by providing a “cooling off period,” especially for suicides because they are impulsive acts.

Gun rights advocates, however, argued that the law would violate the constitution by burdening gun owners with responsibility. They worried the law would hurt the state’s economy and endanger people who need to quickly obtain a gun for self-defense.

The legislature approved the bill on April 17but with narrow margins. The final vote was 73-70 in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, the bill passed 18-17 after Democrats used a rarely used procedural move allowing the votes of two absent senators to be counted.

This story will be updated.

Copy the story link