Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Pro-2A Groups Seize Momentum To Target Blue State’s Onerous Mandatory Waiting Period

Chicago during the evening. (By Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23086028)

The National Rifle Association and its Illinois affiliate filed suit in federal court to invalidate the state’s mandatory 72-hour waiting period on Second Amendment grounds weeks after a landmark Supreme Court ruling.

While Illinois had a handgun waiting period of 72 hours for years, the “cooling off” period was extended to all firearms in legislation signed by then-Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2018. In the complaint, the pro-Second Amendment organizations noted that waiting periods could have fatal consequences for people, arguing the waiting period was unconstitutional while citing the Supreme Court’s Wolford decision from June.

“While these waiting periods helped facilitate investigations into the purchaser, they also came at a significant cost to law-abiding citizens,” the groups noted in their July 7 court filing, which named Democratic Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul as a defendant. “A New Jersey woman was fatally stabbed by her ex-boyfriend (against whom she had a restraining order) in 2015 while waiting for the state to process her application to own a handgun. In another sad episode, a Wisconsin woman was killed by her stalker before she could take possession of the handgun she was attempting to purchase.”

Pearson told the DCNF that in recent years, roughly three-fifths of the firearm dealers in the state have shuttered their establishments, forcing state residents seeking to buy a firearm to take lengthy trips to reach a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL). Pearson noted that those who had purchased firearms and passed a background check would have to make another lengthy trip in order to exercise their Second Amendment rights due to the waiting period.

“They have to make two trips to the dealer,” Pearson said. “One trip to fill out the application, the 4473, the federal form, and another trip three days to 30 days later to pick it up.”

Orchid Advisors estimated that Illinois had roughly 4,400 FFLs in 2021, but the number declined to 1,361 in September 2025, according to gun-control organization Everytown.

Illinois requires anyone to obtain a Firearm Owner’s Identification Card (FOID) before they can possess any firearm or even ammunition, according to the Illinois State Police Firearms Service Bureau. The law enacting the licensing scheme was challenged on Second Amendment grounds in a May suit filed by the New Civil Liberties Alliance.

Raoul did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF about the lawsuit.