A new report by the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) finds that the FBI’s Active Shooter Reports have massively underestimated the number of times armed civilians have stopped active shooter attacks. The CPRC analysis found that armed citizens stopped 157 of the 440 active shooter incidents that occurred between 2014 and 2022, a rate of 35.7%. This is significantly higher than the 4.6% rate reported by the FBI.
“The FBI’s Active Shooter Reports have significantly underestimated the number of times armed civilians have stopped active shooter attacks,” said John Lott, the CPRC’s president. “This is important information that the public needs to know in order to make informed decisions about gun policy.”
The Crime Prevention Research Center’s data forcefully highlights that the media’s primary sources have grossly undervalued the number of times armed citizens intervened in potential attack scenarios, overshadowing their life-saving acts by a factor greater than ten. Far from being an anomaly, armed citizens stopping these threats are more common than we’re led to believe. Yet, their heroics are all too often sidelined in national news coverage. While there are occasional implications in the news that using guns defensively might pose risks to others, no concrete evidence supports this biased claim.
The FBI’s official records indicate that from 2014 to 2022, armed citizens intervened in only 14 out of the 302 active shooter events they’ve identified. Their definition of such incidents centers on scenarios where an individual attempts or succeeds in killing others in populated public spaces, conveniently excluding situations associated with other crimes like robberies or territorial disputes over drugs.
However, a thorough review by the Crime Prevention Research Center pinpointed a total of 440 active shooter events during the same timeframe, with armed citizens stepping in 157 times.
An earlier report honed in solely on cases where armed individuals halted probable mass public shootings. An additional 27 scenarios where armed citizens preemptively acted against attackers—despite the absence of gunfire from the assailant—were not counted. Although these cases were left out, one could fiercely argue that these citizens indeed averted potential active shooting catastrophes.
The CPRC report found that the FBI’s reports have misclassified several active shooter incidents as non-active shooter incidents and that the FBI has also overlooked a number of incidents where armed citizens stopped attacks. For example, the FBI’s report on the December 2019 attack on the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas, does not list this as an incident of “civic engagement.” Instead, the FBI lists this attack as being stopped by a security guard. However, a citizen volunteer parishioner was the “guard” who provided “security” during worship and who fatally shot the perpetrator.
The CPRC study revealed that the FBI’s data overlooks the number of active shooter events in gun-free zones, areas where carrying firearms is restricted for law-abiding individuals.
“The FBI’s reports are not accurate because they do not take into account the number of active shooter incidents that occur in gun-free zones,” said Carl Moody, the CPRC’s research director. “This is a serious problem because gun-free zones make it more difficult for armed citizens to stop active shooter attacks.”
The data estimates that about half of all active shooter incidents occur in gun-free zones.
The Crime Prevention Research Center report’s findings are significant because they suggest that armed citizens play a much larger role in stopping active shooter attacks than previously thought. The report’s findings also call into question the accuracy of the FBI’s Active Shooter Reports.
The report’s authors emphasize the need for the FBI to reevaluate its classification of what constitutes an active shooter incident and to refine and improve the way they document such events.
“The FBI needs to revise its definition of an active shooter incident and improve its reporting of active shooter incidents,” said Lott. “They also need to stop ignoring the role that armed citizens play in stopping these attacks.”
Eliminating Joe Biden’s signature gun-free zone law would go a long way to making it more difficult for armed citizens to stop active shooter attacks.
No evaluation of impact of civilian carry can be complete without effective estimation of shootings stopped before it becomes a mass-shooting. There is simply no way to estimate attacks deterred, but events where no shots were fired, or fewer people ended up shot should count for much. West Freeway church – not a mass shooting (2 dead + killer). Greenwood Mall (?) – not a mass shooting (1 dead? + killer). W. Virginia a couple years back where some guy with an AK tried to shootup a block party, a Mom pulled out her purse pistol and ended the bad-guy… Read more »
I love the mom with the “purse pistol.” She breaks all the stereotypes the left uses to define us. They have no explanation for her.
There was a similar occurance in Tampa last year when a nutjob pulled out a gun on a childrens birthday party. The psycho was just driving around a public park when he saw the kids. Parked his car ,approached the party and pulled out a gun. The jerk was NOT known to the victims but an alert woman (a mother of one of the kids I think) pulled out her LEGAL concealled weapon and ended the threat. Don’t see things like that in the “official” statistics.
You never miss a chance to trash the masons and/or jews do you boy? BTW, you’re the filthy trash boy!
Guns can save lives just like liberal policies can cost lives , its that simple .
FJB
Trump 2024
FJB
Trump/Noem 2024
I’ve come up with a generalized way to best understand government “gun facts” presented by the alphabet agencies and the drive-by media. I simply make the assumption that 50% are intentionally incorrect. The other 50% are simply wrong. You’d be surprised how well this works.
That a fact!
It makes sense that they wouldn’t count West Freeway Church shooting. Doesn’t FBI’s definition of Active-Shooter event require at least four fatalities not including the shooter? Nut job only shot two innocents at WF-Church, so not a mass shooting, so not a mass shooting stopped by “good guy with a gun.” Of course we all see it for the tragic event it was, which could have been infinitely worse without armed good guys. Also great example of good guys with guns not making things worse – since there were at least twenty pistols out before Jack Wilson made the shot.… Read more »
Intentional misdirection and changing of data with an agenda is NOT an “error”.
It’s not.
It’s called propaganda.
How about fixing the pop ups so we can actually read the whole article?
Guns save lives, especially hypocrite politicians who use the very same tools they would ban from ordinary Americans.
3 kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics. I taught a course in statistical analysis for a State Government back in the 90s and early 2000s. One of the blocks in that course was in numbers manipulation. Understanding how to make any set of data look good or bad. Depending on the desired results of the person requesting the data. And yes it was done all the time. In order to secure funding for a particular project or funding in general. The only numbers that truly matter are the ones that effect you and your family directly. Everything else… Read more »
it is doubtful that the alphabet agency does not know that they are fudging the numbers, as that would skew the narrative that firearms are bad and only the alphabet agency and its buddies should have them, not citizens.
this just go to show people that cprc is doing actual research as opposed to the other groups that just claim they do the same.
if a group does not include cprc/john lott’s research, in my eyes it is not valid.
“Eliminating Joe Biden’s signature gun-free zone law would go a long way to making it more difficult for armed citizens to stop active shooter attacks.”
Should read:
“Eliminating Joe Biden’s signature gun-free zone law would go a long way to making it more probable that armed citizens will stop active shooter attacks.”
Think logically how it that possible unless it’s rigged from the inside. The usual suspects are the Democrips & “AI” but in reality those are the patsies for a much bigger Trojan Horse problem throughout twistory. You can’t stop an enemies force that you cannot clearly identify. Read & educate yourselves to think for yourself & independent of a scripted narrative.