STATE ATTORNEY NOTIFIES ALACHUA COUNTY HE WILL NO LONGER PROSECUTE VIOLATIONS OF WAITING PERIOD FOR FIREARMS

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

Updated on June 5 with a statement from the Mountain States Legal Foundation and Attorney General Uthmeier

ALACHUA COUNTY, Fla. – State Attorney Brian Kramer has notified Alachua County that he will not prosecute violations of the County’s waiting period for purchasing firearms because of an agreement that is pending in a United States District Court.

The lawsuit, Dunn v. Glass (8:25-cv-02264-SDM-AEP), challenged any waiting period that extends beyond the time required to perform a background check, and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote in his Offer of Judgment, “Those waiting period restrictions burden the right to keep and bear arms. As the government cannot meet its burden to establish a historical tradition of regulation that justifies an arbitrary waiting period unconnected to the time required to complete a background check, they are unconstitutional under the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, as made applicable to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment.”

“We are so grateful to the Attorney General for facilitating a timely resolution of this case,” said Director of MSLF’s Center to Keep and Bear Arms, Michael McCoy. “They and the 21 other defendants in the case have come to agree with us that Florida’s firearms waiting period laws have nothing to do with public safety – in fact, they make people less safe; and instead only make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to exercise their Second Amendment-protected rights to keep and bear arms. For that reason, these laws need to be abandoned. And it looks like that is exactly what is going to happen in Florida. And, with our partners at the NRA, we will continue to work hard to spread this trend across the entire country!”

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier posted on X, “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.”

Kramer wrote that Alachua County’s five-day waiting period “rests upon the same constitutional authority and advances the same type of waiting-period restriction” addressed in the proposed settlement agreement in Dunn v. Glass.

Kramer wrote, “[T]his office will not prosecute alleged violations of Alachua County Ordinance 2018-18 following entry of final judgment” in Dunn v. Glass. He continued, “Where the State itself has agreed that a criminal provision cannot be constitutionally enforced under controlling Second Amendment principles, I do not believe it is appropriate for this office to pursue criminal prosecutions based upon materially identical waiting-period requirements absent further direction from the courts and substantive revocation of this settlement agreement.”

Kramer wrote that County ordinances are within the authority of the County Commission, so he was simply providing notification that he will not enforce the County’s ordinance if the Court enters a final judgment that is consistent with the Offer of Judgment.