The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) filed an amicus brief today in the U.S. Supreme Court in Beckwith v. Frey, supporting petitioners' request for review of a First Circuit decision upholding Maine's firearm waiting period law.
The First Circuit held that laws regulating the purchase or acquisition of firearms do not target conduct covered by the Second Amendment's plain text, and that such laws are constitutional unless plaintiffs prove they are "abusive" toward Second Amendment rights. SAF argues this standard revives the interest-balancing Heller and Bruen rejected. Once a law burdens people who wish to exercise the right to keep and bear arms, the government must justify it with historical tradition – full stop. Joining SAF in the brief filing is the National Rifle Association.
"A waiting period delays the exercise of a constitutional right, and that is enough to implicate the Second Amendment," said SAF Director of Legal Research and Education Kostas Moros, counsel of record on the brief. "The First Circuit told plaintiffs they have no claim unless a judge first decides the delay is 'abusive.' That is merely interest-balancing by another name. If courts can dodge history by saying acquisition is not 'keeping' or 'bearing,' Bruen becomes optional."
The brief notes a deepening circuit split. The Fifth Circuit recently held that there is no middle ground at Bruen step one: conduct either implicates the plain text, or it does not, and the degree of the burden is generally immaterial at that stage. The Tenth Circuit has likewise recognized that acquiring firearms is a necessary predicate of keeping and bearing them. The First Circuit's "abusive enough" test, SAF's brief argues, is the same "severity of the burden" interest-balancing inquiry the Supreme Court already forbade under a new label.
"Waiting periods have real-life consequences for anyone wishing to purchase a firearm for self-defense," said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. "Maine's law, and the First Circuit's theory that buying a gun is only an 'ancillary' right, treats self-defense as a privilege the government may slow-walk. That's not the way constitutional rights work, no matter how lawmakers in the state feel about the Second Amendment."
For more information visit SAF.org.
The Second Amendment Foundation (saf.org) is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group dedicated to safeguarding and promoting the fundamental rights of individuals enshrined in the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. SAF engages in aggressive legal action to ensure the principles of armed self-defense, personal liberty, and the ownership of arms are defended, secured, and restored. Through public education initiatives, SAF teaches the importance of the Second Amendment to promote a society that values and exercises the right to keep and bear arms.