A federal judge in Florida refused to agree to a settlement between the state and a pro-Second Amendment group, instead inviting gun-control groups to submit briefs in defense of the state's waiting period.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) sued the state on behalf of multiple residents and firearms dealers in August 2025, seeking to invalidate the state's waiting period on firearms purchases. Nearly five months after the gun-rights organization and Republican Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier moved to close the case with a settlement, Senior United States District Judge Steven Douglas Merryday, a George H.W. Bush appointee, issued a ruling denying the request and inviting Brady United and Giffords to defend the law. (RELATED: Gun-Control Groups Ask Supreme Court To Reverse Landmark Ruling)
"The parties' agreed result in this instance includes a declaratory judgment and a permanent injunction," Merryday claimed. "The proposed declaration would determine that a provision of Florida's constitution and an implementing statute are violative of the Second Amendment as applied to the state through the Fourteenth Amendment."
Florida AG @JamesUthmeierFL said the gun purchase waiting period is unconstitutional.
— Luis Valdes (@RealFLGunLobby) November 2, 2026
Judge Steven Merryday left it in place.
Gun owners still have to wait.@ByronDonalds wants it repealed.
Nov. 3: Your rights can’t wait. VOTE FOR PRO-GUN CANDIDATES WANTING IT REPEALED! https://t.co/d8pBLDb850 pic.twitter.com/GqoRapgNq3
"The proposed permanent injunction would preclude the principal law enforcement officials of Florida from enforcing the specified parts of Florida's constitution and statutes," Merryday continued, arguing the issue is "a prominent and vigorously debated question of law," citing the Supreme Court's refusal to hear Beckwith v. Frey, a case challenging Maine's waiting period.
Merryday asked Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida House of Representatives, the Florida state Senate and the two gun control groups to weigh in by Feb. 1, 2027 in his order. Uthmeier and the NRA did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit struck down a waiting period on firearms purchases in August 2025 while overruling a decision in favor of New Mexico by Senior United States District Judge James O. Browning, a George W. Bush appointee. The dueling decisions from the First and Tenth Circuits created a "circuit split" that sometimes makes it more likely the Supreme Court will take up a case.
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