The National Rifle Association claimed victory on Friday after Florida’s Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the settlement of a Second Amendment case with wide-ranging implications.
The NRA had initially filed suit, along with several others, in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida back in August 2025 to overturn the state’s three-day waiting period for firearms.
The gun rights organization Firearms Policy Coalition posted a message on X early Friday morning, which read, “We’re hearing that the Florida AG is going to enter into an agreement that says the state’s 3-day waiting period is unconstitutional.”
Uthmeier quoted the post and wrote a reply: “Every government office, including mine, exists to protect your God-given rights as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. That’s why we’re settling a landmark federal case that declares Florida’s 3-day firearm purchase waiting period unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.”
Every government office, including mine, exists to protect your God-given rights as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
That’s why we’re settling a landmark federal case that declares Florida’s 3-day firearm purchase waiting period unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. https://t.co/9ZSZjhTO3m
— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) June 5, 2026
“Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier, Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass, and the State Attorneys are standing up for Constitutional rights and their constituents,” NRA Institute for Legislative Action Executive Director John Commerford said in a statement, according to the Daily Caller.
Is the Second Amendment absolute?
“By entering into this agreement with us, they have affirmed that Florida’s three-day firearm waiting period is unconstitutional and violates the Second Amendment. Law-abiding Floridians should never be delayed from exercising their fundamental rights. This is a major victory, and we look forward to the court permanently striking down this restriction.”
The three-day waiting period for handguns sold via retail was passed back in 1998 as a constitutional amendment during the midterm elections, with exceptions for concealed weapons permit holders and trade-ins of other handguns.
It was later expanded and applied to all firearms, however, during the aftermath of the Parkland high school shooting back in 2018, according to a 2025 article from the NRA-ILA.
The article argued that the waiting period requirements “are completely unrelated to the time it takes to complete a background check — even if the background check instantly comes back clean, the purchaser still must wait three days before taking possession of his or her firearm.”
The group also stated that the “provisions exist only to impose an arbitrary delay and a forced period of reflection between the purchase and delivery of a firearm — in essence, they require a ‘cooling-off’ period or in common sense terms, a time tax.”
This announcement comes as the Supreme Court is gearing up to deliver two highly consequential rulings related to the Second Amendment before the end of its term in the cases of Wolford v. Lopez and United States v. Hemani.
In Wolford, the high court is examining a Hawaii law that prohibits people with concealed carry permits from bringing firearms onto almost all private property that’s open to the public, unless the owner gives their express permission, SCOTUS Blog reported.
In Hemani, the justices are considering the constitutionality of a federal law that prevents possession of a firearm by anyone who is unlawfully using, or addicted to, a controlled substance.
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