NSSF, NRA and Three Albuquerque Dealers Sue New Mexico Over Its 7-Day Gun Waiting Period

Nine plaintiffs led by the National Shooting Sports Foundation filed a complaint in federal court on Oct. 19, 2026, asking a judge to declare New Mexico’s seven-day firearm waiting period unconstitutional and to bar Attorney General Raúl Torrez from enforcing it against them, their customers and their members.

The case, No. 1:26-cv-03514 in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, is the second federal challenge to House Bill 129, the 2024 law codified at N.M. Stat. §30-7-7.3. Alongside NSSF are the National Rifle Association, the Second Amendment Foundation, the New Mexico Firearms Industry Association, the New Mexico Shooting Sports Association, three Albuquerque licensed dealers (Calibers Shooting Sports Center, Omni Tactical USA and Right to Bear Arms) and Peter Hackett, a retired Albuquerque police officer who the complaint says planned to buy a Glock 21 pistol at Right to Bear Arms on or about Oct. 24.

HB 129 requires a wait of seven calendar days between the sale of a firearm and its transfer to the buyer, and the wait includes the time the federal background check takes. Transferring a gun before the period ends is a misdemeanor for the buyer and the seller. Sales to licensed dealers, to holders of New Mexico concealed handgun licenses, to law enforcement agencies and between immediate family members are exempt.

In the first challenge, Ortega v. Grisham, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held in August 2025 that the law is unconstitutional as applied to buyers whose background checks clear within three days, and the full court refused to rehear the case by a 10-2 vote. On remand, U.S. District Judge James O. Browning entered final judgment for the two individual plaintiffs in August 2026. The complaint says the state has appealed that judgment and that its lawyers told the plaintiffs’ counsel New Mexico will enforce the law against everyone except those two people.

The new suit brings one count under 42 U.S.C. §1983 for violation of the Second Amendment. It asks for a declaration that HB 129 is unconstitutional as applied to buyers who pass a background check in under 72 hours, a preliminary and permanent injunction and attorneys’ fees. Counsel are Clement & Murphy of Alexandria, Virginia, the Mountain States Legal Foundation and Harrison & Hart of Albuquerque, the same lawyers who represent the Ortega plaintiffs.

“Criminals do not purchase firearms at retail and do not submit to a waiting period before illegally obtaining a gun,” Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF’s senior vice president and general counsel, said in a release on Oct. 20. NSSF said it funded the first appeal and the remand proceedings and is funding the opposition to the state’s new appeal.

A spokesperson for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told the Santa Fe New Mexican on Oct. 20 that the state had not yet been served and needed time to evaluate the complaint before commenting. The state Department of Justice did not answer the newspaper’s request for comment.

The state’s appeal of the Ortega judgment, filed in September 2026, is pending at the Tenth Circuit, and the attorney general’s answer to the new complaint is the next filing due in the district court.