New Mexico’s Waiting Period Lost in Court and Still Applies to You

Last updated September 2026 · By Nick Hall, who has read enough court orders to know the holding and the relief are two different things

Quick take: A federal judge in New Mexico held the state’s seven-day waiting period unconstitutional on 27 August and entered final judgment the next day. Then he wrote an order that protects the two people who sued. If you walk into a New Mexico gun shop this week, you still wait seven days.

• What happened: U.S. District Judge James O. Browning granted summary judgment to the plaintiffs in Ortega v. Grisham, holding the Waiting Period Act unconstitutional.
• The law: New Mexico’s 2024 Waiting Period Act, which makes a buyer wait seven days to take possession of a gun even after passing the background check instantly.
• Who is covered: Samuel Ortega and Rebecca Scott. That is the list.
• What happens next: Browning ordered state officials to notify the Department of Public Safety by 10 September, which must then post the order on its website.

A law can be unconstitutional and still be the law you obey on Saturday morning. That gap is the entire story here, and it is the part that gets lost when a headline says a law was struck down.

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What the Waiting Period Act Actually Does

New Mexico passed the law in 2024. A buyer who clears the background check in four minutes still cannot take the gun home for seven days.

The stated purpose is a cooling-off period. The argument is that some share of impulsive violence and suicide gets prevented if there is a week between the decision and the gun. Supporters point at that. Opponents point at the woman who is being stalked and has to go home without the pistol she just bought and paid for.

Ortega and Scott sued on 15 May 2024, the day the law took effect. Both said they had passed their checks quickly and been made to wait anyway.

The Tenth Circuit Got There First

A district judge denied a preliminary injunction in July 2024. The Tenth Circuit reversed on 19 August 2025 and sent it back down.

That appellate ruling is the one that matters for everyone outside New Mexico. The court held that the Second Amendment’s protection of keeping and bearing arms includes acquiring arms in the first place, and that cooling-off periods are, in the court’s words, a modern invention unsupported by the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Rehearing was denied that December.

So by the time the case came back to Judge Browning, the outcome was close to settled. The question was not whether the law would fall. It was how far the ruling would reach.

The Answer Was: Two People

Browning’s order stops the governor, the attorney general, state employees, law enforcement officers and anyone acting with them from enforcing the Waiting Period Act against Ortega and Scott. It does not extend that protection to anyone else in New Mexico.

The seven-day wait therefore stays in force for ordinary buyers unless they fall under one of the statutory exemptions. The Department of Public Safety is still telling dealers the law applies. The NRA, which backed the plaintiffs, has published its account of the judgment.

If you are a New Mexico resident reading a headline about the waiting period being struck down and planning your Saturday accordingly, that is the sentence to read twice.

Why Courts Do This

Narrow relief is not a quirk of this judge. It has become the normal shape of federal litigation after several years of appellate courts pushing back hard on nationwide injunctions and universal remedies.

The practical effect is that a plaintiff wins a declaration that a law is unconstitutional, and the state carries on enforcing it against the 2.1 million people who were not party to the case. Ending it takes a class action, a statewide injunction on appeal, or a legislature that reads the writing on the wall and repeals the thing.

None of those are fast.

What a New Mexico Buyer Should Do

Assume the wait applies. Plan the purchase around it, and check the exemptions, because they are the only part of this that helps you today.

Watch the Department of Public Safety site after 10 September. That notice is the clearest public signal of how the state reads its own position, and if the wording softens, that tells you something.

And watch for an appeal. The state can go back to the Tenth Circuit, which is the same court that already told it the law fails constitutional scrutiny. That is not a promising room to walk into, which is why a quiet repeal or a broader settlement is at least as likely as a fight.

Our New Mexico gun laws guide covers the rest of the state’s rules, and the state-by-state breakdown shows where waiting periods still exist elsewhere.

The Broader Point

Waiting periods are having a hard few years in federal court. The historical-tradition test that came out of Bruen asks for a founding-era analogue, and there is not one for making a buyer wait a week.

California, Colorado, Illinois, Hawaii and others all have versions of this on the books. The Tenth Circuit’s reasoning does not bind those states, but it does hand their challengers a well-argued opinion to quote.

Two people in New Mexico can now buy a gun the same day. That is a strange kind of victory, and it is still a victory, because the reasoning outlives the order.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Reading

• New Mexico gun laws explained
• US gun laws, state by state
• Which states require universal background checks
• The concealed carry guide