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  • 2016
  • Working Paper

Delaying Firearm Purchases Reduces Gun Violence

By: Michael Luca, Deepak Malhotra and Christopher Poliquin
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
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Abstract

Handgun waiting periods are laws that impose a two to seven-day delay between the purchase and delivery of a firearm. While states might institute waiting periods for different reasons (e.g., to allow for background checks), these delays also create a “cooling off” period. Waiting periods might thus reduce the incidence of gun violence in cases where the buyer was motivated to purchase a firearm due to a transitory emotional state (e.g., anger). We estimate the impact of waiting periods on gun deaths, exploiting all changes to state-level policies in the Unites States since 1978. We find that waiting periods reduce gun homicides by roughly 14%, demonstrating the viability of reducing gun violence without restricting anyone’s right to obtain a firearm. We provide further support for the causal impact of waiting periods on homicides by exploiting a natural experiment resulting from a federal law that exogenously imposed a temporary waiting period on a subset of states in 1994.

Keywords

Government Legislation; Safety; Rights; Laws and Statutes; United States

Citation

Luca, Michael, Deepak Malhotra, and Christopher Poliquin. "Delaying Firearm Purchases Reduces Gun Violence." Working Paper, December 2016.

About The Authors

Michael Luca

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

Deepak Malhotra

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

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More from the Authors
  • Leaders: Stop Confusing Correlation with Causation By: Michael Luca
  • Project Restart: Deciding the Future of English Football By: Nour Kteily and Deepak Malhotra
  • Trouble at Basecamp: Managing Politics, Polarization, and Conflict in the Workplace (A) & (B) By: Nour Kteily and Deepak Malhotra
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