In April 2024, Gov. Janet Mills allowed a bill that requires a 72-hour waiting period before a dealer can transfer a firearm to a lawful purchaser to go into effect, declining to either veto or affirmatively sign the bill into law. Mills repeated that move earlier this month by allowing LD 1126, the ban on the home manufacturing of frames and receivers, to take effect without her signature, turning peaceable Mainers into criminals overnight.
On Friday, January 30, 2026, the Joint Committee on the Judiciary was originally scheduled to hold a work session on a pair of bills that would repeal the 72-hour waiting period. At the last minute, L.D. 208 and L.D. 1230 were dropped from the work session agenda, in a clear attempt to stall progress on fixing this unconstitutional law.
Despite the Mills administration failing gun owners in Maine again, the 72-hour law has been halted by the Maine Federal District Court since Feb 13, 2025, on the grounds that the law is likely unconstitutional. The case, Beckwith v. Frey, is on appeal in the First Circuit on that preliminary injunction. NRA filed an amicus brief in Beckwith in June of 2025.
The legislature could simply fix this unconstitutional law that has been enjoined for nearly a year, which Gov. Mills let slip without actually signing. Instead, gun owners in Maine will get more stall and delay tactics.
NRA-ILA will continue to monitor these bills throughout the session and fight for the rights of law-abiding Mainers.
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