Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation File Lawsuit Against DOJ Over Waiting Period for Adults Under 21

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May 13, 2023

On May 12, 2023, Gun Owners of America (GOA) and the Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) filed a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of Texas, taking on the Department of Justice’s de facto waiting periods for NICS background checks on adults who are not yet 21 years old.  

This new policy was brought about by the passage of the Cornyn-Murphy gun control bill that the Biden regime signed off on in the summer of 2022, which currently imposes unconstitutional waiting periods on young adults. A NICS background check for these individuals currently requires a review of juvenile justice records, state mental health records, and those from local law enforcement where the purchaser is residing. This review is tacked on to the records already held by the FBI NICS System. Due to how those state and local agencies don’t have the tools or preparation to supply this information in a timely manner, young gun purchasers are compelled to wait with no recourse, which is a clear infringement of their Second Amendment rights. 

Erich Pratt, GOA’s Senior Vice President, made the following statement:    

GOA repeatedly warned legislators and the public how this would grossly violate young Americans’ Constitutional rights, and yet Texas Senator John Cornyn compromised away those rights anyway. Now we see young adults frequently and routinely being denied their right to purchase a firearm in a timely manner, and this right delayed is unjustly a right denied. Compromise is no way to legislate when dealing with people’s God-given rights.

Sam Paredes, the Treasurer of the Board for GOF, stated the following:  

We have worked hard since this gun control bill passed to document and compile many of the compelling cases where people were ridiculously delayed in purchasing a firearm, in some cases for weeks! This only goes to show how ineffective the background check system really is, and instead of proposing real solutions to ensure that We the People can protect ourselves from dangerous criminals, compromise Cornyn and a handful of anti-gun Republicans teamed up with the anti-gun legislator in chief, Chris Murphy, to double down on an ineffective policy to further infringe on our rights. 

For multiple decades, GOA has been the premier no compromise lobby that gun owners can count on to defend their right to bear arms. No matter the fight, GOA can always be a reliable ally for the Second Amendment.

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