The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the firearm industry, filed the lawsuit. It is challenging the state’s enforcement of a seven-day waiting period on gun purchases — even after buyers have already passed an FBI background check.
Lawrence Keane, NSSF senior vice president, slammed the waiting period as a “grotesque misuse of government power” that puts law-abiding citizens at risk while doing nothing to stop criminals.
Mark Oliva, public affairs director at NSSF, said this legal battle could ultimately climb all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, because federal appeals courts remain divided over whether so-called cooling-off periods violate the Second Amendment.
Oliva said that these delays have very real, practical dangers, especially for vulnerable individuals.
“This has very practical applications, especially when we’re talking about people who are victims of abusers... if that abuser knows that she has to wait... that leaves her vulnerable for that period of time to be victim again by somebody who has no respect for her personal safety,” Oliva says.
The lawsuit is filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit previously ruled in Ortega v. Grisham that the waiting period infringes on Second Amendment rights. The district court subsequently issued a permanent injunction blocking enforcement for the named plaintiffs.
Despite court rulings that found the law unconstitutional, state officials are appealing. They also intend to enforce the waiting period against New Mexico firearm retailers who were not original parties to the initial case.
NSSF filed this second lawsuit to protect all federally licensed firearm retailers and consumers in the state. Attorney General Raul Torrez (D-New Mexico) is named in the lawsuit.
AFN is seeking comment from the attorney general as well as New Mexico's Democrat governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Grisham signed the bill into law in March 2024. At the time, the governor said she wanted to reduce impulsive acts of gun violence, prevent self-harm and suicides, and provide law enforcement adequate time to finalize comprehensive background checks.
