John Lott Jr. I had the pleasure of eating lunch with Dr. Lott at SHOT Show 2014.
Good guys with guns stop more active shooters than the Federal Bureau of Investigation would have you believe, says economist John Lott Jr. in a recent article on RealClearPolitics.
Lott’s team at the nonprofit Crime Prevention Research Center looked at different FBI reports examining the frequency in which concealed carriers stop active shooters and found the bureau missed at least “23 cases where permit holders saved the day.”
In one report published in 2014 during the Obama administration, the bureau claimed that from 2000-2013 armed citizens only stopped one out of 160 attacks. And, in subsequent reports published annually, the bureau indicated that armed citizens stopped seven out of 90 attacks from 2014-2017.
Based on the FBI’s stats, concealed carriers stop 3.2 percent of active shooter incidents from 2000-2017.
But when one factors in the 23 cases that the FBI missed during that timeframe, that number jumps from 3.2 percent to an impressive 11.5 percent! The question is, why weren’t those cases included?
Dr. Lott reached out to the FBI over the years to get answers. In 2015, the FBI told Lott, “We acknowledge in the FBI report that our data are imperfect.” However, the agency never made any corrections to that first report.
This year, after the publication of the 2016-2017 report, Lott once again pointed out the omissions. The FBI was slightly more forthcoming this time around, acknowledging that it missed a single case. As for the other six cases Lott submitted for inclusion, the agency pushed back saying that they did not meet the FBI definition of “active shooter.”
FBI: Concealed Carriers Stopped 8 Percent of Active Shooter Incidents in the Last Two Years
To clarify, the FBI defines active shooter as “one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.” It does not include gang fights or attacks stemming from other crimes like robberies.
Lott compared the details from the cases in the reports to the cases the FBI missed and found that there was a lack of consistency. For instance, the FBI included some cases where the shooter was acting on a grudge and excluded another for seemingly that very reason.
When Lott confronted the bureau about this discrepancy, it responded, “The selection of cases for inclusion in these reports is the result of a consensus vote of analysts and Law Enforcement professionals using the methodology stated in the original 2013 study. In some cases, a level of interpretation is required with which all may not agree.”
In other words, the FBI’s process for classifying active shooter incidents is tinged with subjectivity, which is obviously problematic. As Lott writes, “Without accurate data, we can’t adequately analyze the life-and-death consequences of different policies. We will miss the right solutions. Letting people control the data lets them control the political debate.”
“The Trump administration still has a lot more housecleaning to do at the FBI, more than almost anyone realizes,” he added.
Guys please go out and Vote red this election. You saw on Project Veritas. The dems plan is to keep taking away out 2nd amendment rights.
Of course they aren’t going to report it. The less violent crimes happen, the less they are needed. If they don’t have shit to investigate, they don’t care, or use misinformation to save face.
Most government agencies are a complete overstep outside of the forefathers foresight. They also haven’t reported as to why certain other non-LE agencies need sidearms and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammo each year.
WANT POSITIVE PROOF TO BACK YOU STATEMENTS UP? I did 5 years in TDCJ on a charge I NEVER COMMITTED!
What got me there: WAR WITH A SMALL TOWN PD who were blackmailing 13-16 yo GIRLS FOR SEX OR “”THEIR LICENSE’S WOULD NOT BE AVAILABLE TO THEM TILL 25 YO””! I found out about it it from a friend who’s daughter was 1 of the victims, I talked to her, set up a plan and till the charge of: “IMPERSONATING A PUBLIC OFFICIAL” was levied against me:
—->>I HAD PUT 3 CHIEF’S OF POLICE, 4 OFFICERS AND A DISPATCHER IN THE PEN BY COOPERATING WITH THE TEXAS RANGERS I WENT TO SCHOOL WITH! NOW REGISTERED SEX PERVS!! <<—-
All but 2 of the girls had gotten pregnant, lost their virginity to these LAW ENFORCEMENT PERVS!
GRRRR
Talk about being PISSED AS HELL about the Law as it is now:
***I WAS PROTECTING YOUNG GIRLS FROM PERVS***!!!!
NOW I HAVE A FELONY, CANNOT LEGALLY OWN A FIREARM AND WE HAVE A MASS OF PERVS HEADING TO AMERICA AND I CANNOT CONTINUE TO PROTECT AMERICA FROM USELESS DISEASED TRASH!? Only left to defend myself with the 12 rather large blades I own!
A 70-72 NAM VET & CANNOT HELP DEFEND MY COUNTRY ANY MORE!
Based on this verifiable story:
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Do YOU THINK I WOULDN'T BUST A CAP IN A SCHOOL SHOOTER IF I SAW ONE WITH A FIREARM APPROACHING A SCHOOL OR AT LEAST WOUND HIM TO STOP SUCH NONSENSE FROM HAPPENING AND SAVING INNOCENT SCHOOL KIDS LIVES??
STOP A FEMALE FROM BEING RAPED, BEAT ON OR A CHILD BEING ABUSED IN ANY WAY, ETC?
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YOU TELL ME THE LAW IS CORRECT ON THIS!!??
After all my charge wassss a NON-VIOLENT FELONY they nailed me with! NO CRIMINAL HISTORY!?
I SHOULD BE ABLE TO OWN A WEAPON TO HELP KEEP AMERICANS SAFE: LIKE I DID IN NAM!?
I HATE LAWS NOW!
I agree """not all are bad""!!! YET after my ordeal:
**ALLL LAWS MUST PROVE THEY ARE NOT PIGS TO ME BEFORE I WILL GIVE THEM A CHANCE AT ANYTHING ANYMORE! **
I DON'T CALL THE LAWS ANYMORE!!!
I TC OF MY SHIT IN HOUSE: QUIETLY, SECRETIVELY, PERMANENTLY: PERIOD!
It’s the FBI. They’ve been lying and failing at their job since J Edgar Hoover. FDA, Homeland Security.. Does anyone else see a pattern here? I am a huge supporter of Legitimate Law enforcement. Not the lying, cheating, fabricating government entities we seem to have had for the last several decades. WAKE UP AMERICA… our days are numbered if this does not soon change. It’s the new America, everything can be bought. Our Freedom of speech, Freedom to protect ourselves, soon they will take our BIBLE.
The FBI is a corrupt agency that is run by liberals. Enough said…..
Well, they can’t very well report that permit holders stopped as many or more mass shootings than law enforcement itself did, can they?
The report does acknowledge that the civilian involvement saved “many” lives: “Armed and unarmed citizens engaged the shooter in 10 incidents. They safely and successfully ended the shootings in eight of those incidents. Their selfess actions likely saved many lives.”
Bureaucrats run the FBI, and not law enforcement officers, so this is why data gets skewed. LEOs have integrity and bureaucrats do not.
A blanket statement such as you made is erroneous. Not all LEO have integrity. If what you stated is true Internal Affairs would be sitting around reading Guns America. There’s be no corruption cases in court. There’d be no bad ex-cops in jail.
There are an incredible amount of LEO that completely lack any integrity. They are corrupt, power mad, and some aire just down right evil. Is that all of them? No. Is it a majority of them? Also No. However, to pretend it doesn’t exist is foolish and wrong.