Republican Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has moved to end a long-running legal battle over the states mandatory waiting period for firearm purchases, siding with gun-rights advocates who argued the law violated the Second Amendment.
According to Conservative Daily News, the National Rifle Association (NRA) brought the case in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in August 2025, targeting the states three-day delay between purchase and delivery of a firearm. Uthmeiers office has now agreed to settle the case rather than continue defending a restriction that many conservatives have long viewed as an unconstitutional barrier to lawful gun ownership.
In a statement posted on X, Uthmeier framed the decision as a constitutional duty rather than a political calculation. Every government office, including mine, exists to protect your God-given rights as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, he wrote, adding, Thats why were settling a landmark federal case that declares Floridas 3-day firearm purchase waiting period unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.
The waiting period at issue traces back to Amendment 12, a ballot measure approved by 72% of Florida voters during the 1998 midterm elections, according to Ballotpedia. That mandate was later broadened in the emotional aftermath of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, when then-Republican Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation expanding the scope of the delay.
The NRAs lawsuit zeroed in on the laws rigidity, arguing that it punished law-abiding citizens even when the state had already cleared them to own a firearm. With limited exceptions, Florida Statute 790.0655 makes it unlawful for any person who sells a firearm to deliver the purchasers property to them until a minimum of three days after the seller has initiated a background check, even if a clean background check comes back immediately, the NRA said.
Local officials are already adjusting in anticipation of the settlements final terms, signaling a broader rollback of waiting-period mandates. Florida State Attorney Brian Kramer informed Alachua County on Thursday that he would not enforce its five-day waiting period on firearm purchases, citing the pending agreement, the Alachua Chronicle reported.
Gun-control advocates who championed the original 1998 amendment are now on the defensive as courts apply the Supreme Courts recent, more robust reading of the Second Amendment. Brady United, which backed Amendment 12, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation, leaving unanswered how the gun-control lobby plans to respond as Florida shifts decisively toward restoring immediate access for law-abiding gun buyers once background checks are cleared.
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