guns

The ruling means that the waiting period law will not be enforced while the court hears an appeal of a lawsuit filed by gun owners' rights groups.

But many of the measures likely face stiff political headwinds given the tighter margins between Democrats and Republican in both chambers of the Legislature and past, bipartisan opposition to some of the issues.

A federal judge has denied Attorney General Aaron Frey's request to reinstate Maine's 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases while the case is appealed.

Supporters argue the law passed last year will help avoid suicides by preventing impulsive gun purchases. But opponents see it as an infringement of the Second Amendment.

Maine's score rose roughly seven points since last year, to 27 out of 100.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor asserts that the new law needlessly delays exercising of the 2nd Amendment without determining whether a gun buyer should possess a firearm.

The Lewiston mass shooting changed Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden's perspective on assault-style guns. And that has changed the political dynamics in the close race for the swing-district seat.

Scores of new laws passed by the Legislature earlier this year took effect on Friday.

Gun control advocates in Maine and across the U.S. see the ruling as clarifying and restraining the dramatic expansion of gun rights in the court's controversial 2022 Bruen decision.

The proposal was designed to match a federal rule banning devices that can allow semi-automatic firearms to fire almost as quickly as machine guns, but the governor argued that the definition in the bill were overly broad and could include devices used by hunters and in target shooting.