Federal judge rules against New Mexico’s 7-day waiting period for gun purchases

A federal judge on Thursday ruled against a 2024 New Mexico law that imposed a seven-day waiting period for gun purchases, but a spokesperson for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told Source NM on Friday that her office will almost certainly appeal the ruling.

Citing a sharp uptick in gun violence, the Legislature approved House Bill 129 during the 2024 legislative session, and Lujan Grisham signed it soon afterward. The law imposes a “cooling off” period of a week for gun purchases, except for law enforcement, those with concealed carry permits and those who sell guns to immediate family members. 

The waiting-period law has been tied up in litigation for much of its existence. Two New Mexico residents, Paul Ortega and Rebecca Scott, both of whom say they were forced to wait for their gun purchases despite quickly passing background checks, sued Lujan Grisham and Attorney General Raúl Torrez over the law on the day it took effect: May 15, 2024.

Their suit, backed by the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun organizations, contends the law is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as made applicable to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment.

A federal district judge in July of 2024 denied plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction against the law while the lawsuit proceeded. Last August, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision, paused the law, and sent the case back to the lower court. 

With the case before U.S. District Court James O. Browning, New Mexico defendants argued that the waiting-period law does not violate the Second Amendment. In an April filing, they argued the U.S. Constitution “protects the right to ‘keep’ and ‘bear’ arms — not the right to obtain new firearms instantaneously—and a short delay on a commercial transfer does not meaningfully constrain conduct protected by the Second Amendment’s plain text.”

Browning issued a final judgment Thursday that dismisses the case and orders the governor and attorney general not to require Ortega and Scott to wait seven days before purchasing a gun. His three-page ruling did not lay out why he ruled against the law. 

Officials from the NRA hailed the ruling in social media posts Friday morning as a “MASSIVE WIN.” John Commerford, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, also issued a statement lauding the ruling Friday morning. 

New Mexico to ask appeals court to reconsider 7-day gun buy waiting period

“A right delayed is a right denied, and the court correctly held that forcing law-abiding citizens to wait after passing a background check cannot be squared with the Second Amendment,” he said. 

Michael Coleman, the governor’s communications director, told Source NM in an emailed statement Friday that the governor’s office “is assessing our options but can say with almost complete certainty that we will appeal the ruling.”

He went on to defend the law as constitutional and necessary to stem the tide of gun violence and particularly suicides by creating “space between the decision to buy the gun and the moment of impulse.” 

“This is a targeted fix for a specific problem: checks that don’t finish in time and purchases made in a moment of crisis,” he said. “In the meantime, the order only states that the two named plaintiffs are able to purchase firearms without having to go through the waiting period. The law remains in effect otherwise.”

A spokesperson for Torrez did not immediately respond to Source NM’s request for comment Friday morning. Carter Harrison, a New Mexico-based lawyer who joined the suit seeking to nullify the law, also did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Friday.