The National Rifle Association (NRA) teamed up with the Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) on Wednesday to challenge New Mexico’s most recent gun control push. Second Amendment supporters charge that the state’s newly enacted seven-day waiting period to purchase a weapon is unconstitutional.
The waiting period cleared the state legislature and was signed into law by anti-gun Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D).
Mike McCoy is the director of the Center to Keep and Bear Arms at MSLF. He blasted the new law as simply “the latest attempt by Gov. Grisham and her anti-gun comrades in the New Mexico legislature to limit the Second Amendment rights of their law-abiding constituents.”
McCoy told Fox News Digital that the Bill of Rights clearly protects the freedom of an individual to exercise their right to armed self-defense. “But this ridiculous waiting period law delays the ability of law-abiding citizens to exercise this God-given right.”
Grisham and New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez (D) are named as defendants.
The Waiting Period Act was signed in March and took effect on Wednesday. Firearms merchants are now required to conduct a federal background check for every weapon transaction, and there are no provisions for the process taking longer than a week.
This means that if the check on the individual is delayed, they are forced to wait even longer to exercise their constitutional rights.
Many state lawmakers stood in opposition to this latest infringement on the Bill of Rights, but not enough to block its passage.
One of the most outspoken opponents was state Sen. Steven McCutcheon II (R). He called it an “extremely unconstitutional law” that “does nothing to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.”
McCutcheon added that the statute is “just another restriction for law-abiding citizens to not have access to their firearms. It’s also a restriction on business, and just like we saw with marijuana, we just pass a law and we figure out the details later.”
Grisham, who previously ignited a firestorm of controversy with sweeping and arbitrary gun control actions, defended the move in a statement. “This legislation strikes at the heart of issues that are keeping New Mexicans up at night. We are losing far too many lives when guns get into the wrong hands and violent criminals are allowed to recommit again and again.”
Her office further claimed that opponents of the law are merely protecting “profits.”
Paul Samuel Ortega and Rebecca Scott are New Mexico residents who are also plaintiffs in this latest legal defense of Second Amendment rights. They asserted through court documents that the new law “burdens the right to keep and bear arms.”
Ortega and Scott added that the Waiting Period Act “could never meet its burden to establish a historical analogue to justify its regulation.”
This referenced the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen decision, the landmark ruling that set the historical and traditional standard for the legality of gun control laws. It has already resulted in several state and local statutes being swept aside as not aligning with the nation’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
Supporters of the legal challenge point to the obvious delay that would be experienced by a person seeking to protect themselves from a violent threat. Mandating that a potential victim wait seven days for the ability to fight back is a gross injustice, they assert.
The venerable NRA is again at the forefront of the fight for constitutional freedoms.
Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action Randy Kozuch declared the organization’s determination to withstand this latest encroachment on individual freedoms.
“The NRA is proud to team up with the Mountain States Legal Foundation to challenge New Mexico’s waiting period law. This new law is a clear violation of the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding New Mexico citizens, and the NRA is committed to seeing that this unconstitutional law be wiped from the state statutes.”
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