Congressman Krishnamoorthi Reintroduces COOL OFF Act To Curb Gun Violence With A National Three-Day Waiting Period

WASHINGTON – Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08) today reintroduced the Choosing Our Own Lives Over Fast Firearms (COOL OFF) Act with 16 original cosponsors. The legislation would implement a mandatory three-business-day waiting period for all handgun purchases nationwide. Inspired by a 2017 Harvard Business School study, the bill targets crimes of passion and suicide by instituting a simple but effective delay before firearm access—an evidence-based policy shown to significantly reduce gun-related deaths. Firearm fatalities in the United States remain at crisis levels, with tens of thousands of lives lost each year and communities across the country devastated by preventable gun violence. Analysis of prior federal waiting period laws suggests that a three-day delay could reduce gun homicides by up to 17 percent.

“Gun violence continues to tear through our communities, and Congress cannot keep sitting on its hands,” said Congressman Krishnamoorthi. “The COOL OFF Act offers a commonsense, research-backed solution: pause before purchase. This waiting period will save lives—not someday, but immediately. We need to act before more families lose loved ones to tragedies that a brief cooling-off period could have prevented.”

Text of the legislation, which has been endorsed by the Newtown Action Alliance, is available here. The bill is cosponsored by: Reps. Auchincloss, Casten, Castor, Cohen, Davis (IL), Carbajal, Lieu, Johnson, Khanna, Keating, Morelle, Norton, Quigley, Schakowsky, Thanedar, and Vargas.