Former senior advisor for research and statistics for the U.S. Department of Justice, John R Lott Jr., claims the FBI has misreported how many armed citizens have stopped active shooters.
Lott had the task of evaluating the FBI’s active shooting reports. He found the bureau had missed and misidentified cases regarding armed citizens stopping active shooters, Lott reported. The former senior advisor claims the correct rate of armed citizens stopping active shooters is almost eight times higher than the FBI’s claim of 14 of 302 from 2014-2022. (RELATED: ‘Blatant Violation’: Gun Activists Rail At Biden Admin Over Punitive Crackdowns On ‘Law-Abiding’ Firearms Dealers)
“While the FBI claims that just 4.6% of active shootings were stopped by law-abiding citizens carrying guns, the percentage that I found was 35.7%. I am more confident that we have identified a higher share of recent cases, and our figure for 2022 was even higher — 41.3%,” Lott reported.
The politicization of crime data
“The FBI data on active shootings is missing so many defensive gun uses that it’s hard to believe it isn’t intentional. Errors can happen, but the failure to fix past reports shows a troubling disregard for the truth”#2a https://t.co/SwtcS3SANg
— John R Lott Jr. (@JohnRLottJr) August 31, 2023
“The CPRC’s numbers tell a different story: Out of 440 active shooter incidents from 2014 to 2022, an armed citizen stopped 157. We also found that the FBI had misidentified five cases, usually because the person who stopped the attack was incorrectly identified as a security guard.”
Lott identified that a portion of the misreporting comes as a result of the FBI not differentiating between law-abiding citizens stopping attacks where guns are banned and where they are allowed.
“In places where law-abiding citizens are allowed to carry firearms, the percentage of active shootings that were stopped is 51%. For 2022, that figure is a remarkable 63.5%.”
Lott details he made the errors known to the FBI but was dismissed, according to Real Clear Politics.
“The FBI data on active shootings is missing so many defensive gun uses that it’s hard to believe it isn’t intentional. Errors can happen, but the failure to fix past reports shows a troubling disregard for the truth. The reality is that armed, law-abiding citizens are unsung guardian angels”