Nearly 50 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that any violation of the First Amendment, no matter how small, constituted irreparable harm. This is important because one of the requirements for lawsuits over any of our civil rights is identifying the damage caused or could have been caused by the actions of the defendant, usually some government or government agency.
The Supreme Court has never extended this protection to any of the other enumerated rights in the Bill of Rights and courts have refused to acknowledge it in Second Amendment lawsuits. They have demanded proof of harm without allowing the First Amendment standard to be used.
Finally, we have a ruling, albeit a preliminary ruling, where a federal judge has said the standard applies equally to the Second Amendment.
On Wednesday, February 13, Chief District Judge Lance Walker granted an injunction barring enforcement of Maine’s recently passed 72-hour waiting period law. This was one of the laws the state enacted after the 2023 tragedy in Lewiston that left 18 people dead and 13 more wounded. Just like what happened in Florida following the Parkland shooting, the Maine legislature, in a knee-jerk reaction, passed a raft of worthless gun control laws, including the 72-hour waiting period.
Aaron Frey, Maine’s attorney general, argued the law was a minor inconvenience. However, Judge Walker, who was appointed by President Trump during his first term, said that when it comes to buying a firearm for self-defense, the core purpose of the Second Amendment, any delay was unconstitutional. Frey also trotted out the tired old line, saying the Second Amendment covered keeping and bearing, but not buying. The judge wrote: “Acquiring a firearm is a necessary step in the exercise of keeping and bearing a firearm. Any interpretation to the contrary requires the type of interpretative jiu jitsu that would make Kafka blush.” It will probably require a ruling by the Supreme Court to put down, once and for all, this idiotic defense of indefensible laws. They talk about what the Second Amendment doesn’t say while ignoring what it does say.
There are ten more states, plus the District of Columbia, that have waiting periods. However, there’s more to consider. In Illinois, the state police have 30 days to issue a Firearm Owners Identification Card, which is required before you can even possess a firearm. New Jersey requires 30-45 days to get a permit to purchase a handgun and there’s a seven-day waiting period on top of that. A woman in New Jersey was murdered by her ex-boyfriend while she was waiting on the cops to issue a permit to have a handgun.
A right delayed is a right denied.