NRA Sues Illinois Over 72-Hour Waiting Period — Background Check Is Not Enough

The National Rifle Association filed suit Wednesday challenging Illinois's 72-hour waiting period for firearm purchases — a mandatory "cooling-off" window that has nothing to do with how long a background check takes.

Under 720 ILCS 5/24-3(A)(g), transferring a firearm in a sale without waiting at least 72 hours after buyer and seller agree is a felony. The clock runs even when NICS clears instantly. It runs even when the buyer already owns guns, holds a concealed carry license, or faces a documented threat.

NRA-ILA filed Pearlstein v. Raoul alongside the Illinois State Rifle Association, three Illinois retailers — Sacky's Firearms, Shooting Sports, and Voodoo Firearms — and five member plaintiffs, with Mountain States Legal Foundation and the National Shooting Sports Foundation as partners.

Executive director John Commerford's statement cuts to the Bruen point: "law-abiding citizens who have already passed background checks" should not be blocked from exercising their rights because Chicago politicians want a cooling-off narrative.

The complaint argues there is no historical tradition supporting a 72-hour delay detached from qualification checks — the test Bruen requires. That is a different fight from the Seventh Circuit's PICA ruling the same week. Waiting periods are incrementalism dressed as safety: they do not stop criminals, they inconvenience everyone else.

Illinois has spent years blaming gun owners for failed urban policy while stacking transfer restrictions, dealer rules, and rifle bans. This lawsuit targets one of the oldest insults in the stack — the idea that you might murder someone with a gun you just bought legally unless the state makes you sleep on it for three days.

Watch Pearlstein v. Raoul in the Northern District of Illinois. Support the retailers named in the case — they are taking legal risk to keep the market open for lawful buyers.