Gun rights groups in Maine have filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a new waiting period law for most gun purchases.

One of the plaintiffs’ attorneys participated in the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Bruen decision, which established a new test for evaluating the constitutionality of gun regulations.

The three-day waiting period law was passed this year by the Maine Legislature in response to the 2023 Lewiston mass shootings. Supporters argued the law would provide a cooling-off period that would help reduce suicides, which represent nearly 90%. gun deaths in Maine.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor claims the law violates residents’ exercise of their Second Amendment rights by imposing a restriction unrelated to whether individual gun purchasers should see denied access to firearms, such as background checks.

The plaintiffs include gun dealers and Andrea Beckwith, who runs a self-defense training program that teaches women how to use guns. The lawsuit says one of the women injured in the Lewiston shooting is one of Beckwith’s clients. He also says the law delays gun sales to those who need protection the most, including victims of domestic violence.

Paul Clement is one of the lawyers participating in the trial. He led the 2022 Bruen v. New York case, which gun rights groups have since used to challenge gun regulations. In its ruling, the United States Supreme Court effectively created a new test for the constitutionality of gun regulations by requiring that these laws demonstrate that they are consistent with the nation’s historic tradition of gun regulation. on fire.

Gun control groups have argued that regulating guns for public safety is inherent in the country’s founding principles. That argument proved compelling this summer in Vermont, where a federal judge blocked gun rights groups’ challenges to two gun laws, including a waiting period standard promulgated last year.

In his ruling, Justice William K. Sessions III wrote that “the plain text of the Second Amendment does not protect the right to immediately acquire a firearm.”

The plaintiffs in the Maine lawsuit argue that the waiting period law “has no historical basis” and would have been “unimaginable at the time of its creation.”

The lawsuit has long been promised by the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and the Gun Owners of Maine, who organized events at gun shows over the summer to help fund it.

Maine joined 12 other states in passing such a law. Violators face a fine of $500 for a first offense and $1,000 for subsequent offenses. The proposal was sponsored by Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, and Gov. Janet Mills allowed it to become law without her signature.

It was one of two gun regulation proposals that became law in response to the Lewiston mass shooting. The other, supported by Mills, expanded background checks to private gun sales.