A coalition of Second Amendment heavyweights, the National Rifle Association (NRA), the Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF), and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) took a narrow win on Thursday.
Precedents matter, and limited court rulings can spark major change.
But this week in Ortega v. Grisham, U.S. District Court Judge James O. Browning said that New Mexico’s seven-day waiting period to take possession of a weapon continues to apply to all state residents except plaintiffs Samuel Ortega and Rebecca Scott.
2A organization acknowledges victory should have been more
In a scathing press release, MSLF noted that the waiting period enacted two years ago remains “largely in place.” The organization and its allies sued the day the law took effect in May 2024, but Judge Browning rejected their arguments.
That defeat was short-lived as the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that New Mexico did not comply with the Bruen standard of modern gun control aligning with the nation’s history and tradition of such laws.
On Thursday, Browning applied the Tenth Circuit’s determination to the plaintiffs–and no one else.
Expert predicts confusion among New Mexico’s gun buyers
Director of MSLF’s Center to Keep and Bear Arms Michael McCoy blasted the ruling’s scope.
“Unfortunately, Judge Browning decided to take King Solomon up on his ‘great idea’ to split the baby. Big mistake,” McCoy declared. “What a mess this is going to cause! All Judge Browning’s decision is going to do is create mass confusion among individual citizens and gun store owners in New Mexico over the status of the law.”
Besides the plaintiffs, the state has over 2.1 million residents. Each of them still must wait a week to take possession of a weapon, even after passing a background check.
It’s a win that should be built upon, to be sure. But a far better outcome would have ended the status quo of forcing untold numbers of good citizens to “cool off” when they could need life-saving protection now.
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