The National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit challenging Illinois’s 72-hour waiting period requirement for firearm purchases. The NRA filed the case alongside the Illinois State Rifle Association, Sacky’s Firearms, Shooting Sports, Voodoo Firearms, and five NRA members, in partnership with the Mountain States Legal Foundation and the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Under 720 ILCS 5/24-3(A)(g), Illinois law makes it a felony to transfer a firearm as part of a sale unless the seller waits at least 72 hours after the buyer and seller have agreed to the purchase. This 72-hour period is not tied to the time needed to complete a background check or any other investigation into whether the buyer is legally qualified to own a firearm. Instead, the law imposes a mandatory “cooling-off” period, treating Illinoisans seeking to exercise their Second Amendment rights as inherently untrustworthy and in need of additional time to “cool off” before possessing a firearm.
Illinois’s 72-hour cooling-off requirement applies even when the buyer passes a background check immediately and even when the buyer already lawfully owns firearms. The requirement contains no exceptions for buyers who already possess a concealed handgun license, are certified in hunter safety, or are facing threats to themselves or their families.
As the complaint notes, there is no historical tradition of firearm regulation that supports Illinois’s 72-hour cooling-off law, and the law therefore violates the Second Amendment under the Supreme Court’s test.
Indeed, the Tenth Circuit recently held New Mexico’s 7-day cooling-off law unconstitutional in the NRA’s case, Ortega v. Grisham. And Florida’s Attorney General and other officials recently submitted an Offer of Judgment agreeing that Florida’s 3-day cooling-off law is unconstitutional in the NRA’s case, Dunn v. Glass.
John Commerford, Executive Director of NRA-ILA, issued the following statement: “Today, the National Rifle Association is filing suit to strike down Illinois’s arbitrary and unconstitutional waiting period—a blatant infringement that blocks law-abiding citizens who have already passed background checks from exercising their Second Amendment rights. For decades, politicians in Illinois have pushed extreme gun control measures in a desperate attempt to shift blame for their failure to control violent crime. These failed policies are not only unconstitutional—they actively create a public safety crisis, leaving lawful citizens defenseless when they need to protect their families from rising threats. The NRA is committed to striking down these infringements and restoring firearm rights throughout the country.”
The case, Pearlstein v. Raoul, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Please stay tuned to www.nraila.org for future updates on NRA-ILA’s ongoing efforts to defend your constitutional rights, and please visit www.nraila.org/litigation to keep up to date on NRA-ILA’s ongoing litigation efforts.
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