Appeals court strikes down New Mexico’s gun purchase waiting period law

A federal appeals court on Tuesday halted New Mexico’s seven-day waiting period for gun purchases, ruling that it likely infringes on citizens’ Second Amendment rights.

The 2-1 ruling by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals leaves the law on hold pending a legal challenge and returns the case to a lower court.

The waiting period went into effect in May of last year and included violators being subject to a misdemeanor, but it does have an exception for concealed permit holders. Democrats had enacted the measure in an effort to allow for more time for federal background checks on gun buyers to be completed.

“Cooling-off periods do not fit into any historically grounded exceptions to the right to keep and bear arms, and burden conduct within the Second Amendment’s scope,” Judge Timothy Tymkovich wrote for the majority. “We conclude that New Mexico’s Waiting Period Act is likely an unconstitutional burden on the Second Amendment rights of its citizens.”

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The Mountain States Legal Foundation and National Rifle Association filed the lawsuit on behalf of two New Mexico residents, arguing that the law was unconstitutional and delayed access to firearms for victims of domestic violence and other citizens.

The lawsuit referenced the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen in which a new standard to determine whether a gun restriction is unconstitutional was established. To meet that standard, the government must show there is a “historical tradition of firearm regulation” that supports the law.

Michael McCoy, director of the Mountain States Legal Foundation’s Center to Keep and Bear Arms, celebrated the ruling.

“The court found that there was no analogous law from that era that would support the modern day law that’s at issue,” McCoy said. “For now, it means New Mexicans can go buy their firearms without an arbitrary delay imposed.”

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Democrats had enacted the measure in an effort to allow for more time for federal background checks on gun buyers to be completed. (AP)

John Commerford, executive director of the National Rifle…