evidence: Yet research also suggests that these emotions are often transitory. Given sufficient time to cool off, the types of intense negative emotions that lead to violent tendencies can pass. This suggests that inserting even a short delay in the gun-buying process has the potential to reduce gun violence, without restricting anyone’s right to own a gun. (Delaying a gun purchase might have the additional benefit of closing the window of opportunity for would-be perpetrators of violence to harm their victims.) In a recent project, we set out to test the impact of handgun waiting periods, which impose precisely such a delay, on homicides. [...] Our main finding was consistent across the two approaches: waiting periods reduce gun homicides by 17 percent, with no increase in other types of homicide. In other words, perpetrators of violence do not simply shift to other means of committing homicide, and slight delays in obtaining a gun do not leave people defenseless against would-be attackers. [...] Behaviorally-informed gun policy has the potential to reduce violence without imposing new restrictions on anyone’s right to own a gun, making it particularly promising in the current U.S. political climate. Waiting periods are not only effective (as our research shows) but also supported by the majority of Americans, the majority of Republicans, and even approximately half of all gun owners. After all, waiting periods do not take guns away from anyone, and they do not restrict gun ownership in any way.