Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Table of contents
Heroic Intervention
On July 17, 2022, a tragic shooting erupted at a mall in Greenwood, Indiana, killing three people and injuring another. Elisjsha Dicken, a 22-year-old armed with a licensed handgun, courageously stepped in, shooting and neutralizing the attacker within 15 seconds from 40 yards away.
The Media’s Angle
Major publications such as the Associated Press, Washington Post, and New York Times emphasized how seldom armed civilians intervene in such situations, drawing from FBI statistics.
A Different Story
However, the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) asserts in a recent report that these media sources rely on data that vastly underrepresents instances where armed citizens have thwarted attacks!
Discrepancies in the Data
The FBI identified only 14 instances from 2014-2022 where armed citizens intervened in active shooter incidents.
In contrast, the CPRC identified 157. This significant difference is attributed to misclassifications and overlooked incidents in the FBI reports.
The Missing Cases
The FBI’s omission of critical cases has been long-standing. Theo Wold, a former Justice Department official, criticized the Bureau’s recurring errors.
“So much of our public understanding of this issue is malformed by this single agency,” notes Wold, in a statement to CPRC.
“When the Bureau gets it so systematically – and persistently – wrong, the cascading effect is incredibly deleterious,” he continued. “The FBI exerts considerable influence over state and local law enforcement and policymakers at all levels of government.”
While acknowledging the challenges in data collection, the consistency of these errors in underreporting citizen interventions raises concerns of distortion or bias!
Institutional Reluctance to Correct
Former Justice Department employee Dr. John Lott has repeatedly informed the FBI of their errors, even publishing a list of overlooked cases in 2015.
However, corrections remain absent. Despite acknowledging omissions in some cases, the FBI has yet to update its database.
Economists and Criminologists Weigh In
Both criminologists and economists rank the removal of gun-free zones and the provision for teachers and military personnel to carry concealed handguns among their top policy recommendations for preventing mass shootings.
A Shift in Public Perception
Surveys reveal that a significant portion of the American public believes in the efficacy of armed citizens in stopping such attacks, with “armed citizens” ranking above “local police” and “federal agents.”
The Concern for Innocent Bystanders
Some experts worry about the risks of having more civilians carrying concealed handguns.
However, Professor Moody of the CPRC countered such concerns, emphasizing that data shows armed civilians have not accidentally harmed innocent bystanders.
The media and gun control advocates always seem concerned with the worst possible outcomes when firearms are involved. We know that armed citizens do, in fact, stop active shooters. And while there’s a possibility of a bystander getting hurt, the data put together by the CPRC show that an armed citizen has yet to accidentally shoot an innocent bystander. We also know that the police have accidentally shot the hero citizen just once. That was in Colorado on June 21, 2021. That’s not something that would normally happen, because the police usually arrive long after the incident is resolved.
— Professor Carl Moody
Political Implications and Funding Questions
With allegations of political biases in the FBI’s domestic terrorism data and unanswered queries regarding the funding allocation for the FBI’s list of active shooting cases, the issue remains contentious.
The 2A community wants answers. Mainly, why is the FBI getting it so wrong? Why doesn’t the federal government want us to know how frequently armed civilian responders stop active shooters?
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The FBI is a corrupt agency that deserves no confidence, dissolve these clowns and start over.
With Mr. Garland in charge of the justice system and the constant barrage of “anti-gun” rhetoric, this sounds about right.
I, personally have NOT used my weapons on humans since Viet Nam. But, I sure have considered squaring some controversial actions with certain persons. But I find it much easier to walk away and grumble rather than kill someone without further provocation (ie: an armed person shooting and/or holding hostages)
I DO carry and I also consider safety around others as “Rule #1. They can be quite aggressive when they THINK that you are carrying a weapon around their little ones. Personally, I have never heard of a “child” instigating something that would require someone stopping them in a public place.
You mean the FIB would lie to us? Say it ain’t so!
They don’t want us to know the positive aspects of armed citizenry because knowing so may reduce the implied importance of the FBI, and other enforcement agencies. The FBI believes it walks only on hallowed ground, and that there shall be NO negative aspects pointing to the FBI.
Coincidentally, the public would have MORE respect for the FBI if the FBI would have more respect for armed citizens. The posture of superiority by the FBI makes them look weak, even childish.
If you are truly great, others will acknowledge your greatness. You need not proclaim it yourself.
Simple answer to your headline question: WILLFUL DISHONESTY. The leftists running the FBI, the Justice Department and Washington in general can’t afford to be honest if they are to convince enough people that guns are the enemy instead of the leftist doing the mass killing.
They get it “wrong” because they don’t keep statistics where a gun might be shown but not fired, or when a shot is fired and the subject is only wounded or the shot misses altogether. They only keep track of deaths.
The Uniform Crime Reports don’t go into depth, either. Those tally numbers of crimes, but they don’t generally report on specific details. I don’t think they have enough people to do a lot of record-keeping on data points that don’t add value to the basic numbers.
We’re “lucky” to get what we do – the FBI has tremendous difficulty getting many police departments to send any reports at all. I remember when report forms were changed in order to capture all the info on a case in order to send it in. We were an early adopter, but I was told other departments refused to change and continued to do the old reports. That was a while back, though.
Now President Biden is forming a new agency The gun violence prevention office and filling it with anti gun organization leaders. Who is going to fund this office?
Won’t Congress have to approve the funding. I, for one, as a tax payer do not wish to fund a government office that is designed and intended to strip me of my civil Rights.
We can spread, tell, scream this information among us all day long-year round, it will stay inside that circle. It has to be pushed to a much larger scale to have any real impact. Some have to convince a few politically involved persons to spread this information publicly and widely, otherwise we are just loosing time whining between us.
ALL fake law enforcement SERVICE CORPORATIONS exist to take $$$$ from the PEOPLE of the U.S and give it to MUNICIPAL, CITY, STATE & FED SERVICE CORP’S including COURTS…
Perhaps you need to improve your reading comprehension. The following is cut & pasted directly from the article above:
“And while there’s a possibility of a bystander getting hurt, the data put together by the CPRC show that an armed citizen has yet to accidentally shoot an innocent bystander.”
The FBI, first directed by a cross-dressing freak, has further devolved into an intelligence/enforcement arm of the most corrupt people on the planet and, along with the CIA, is clearly the enemy of the people. It needs to be dissolved and replaced.
This corrupt administration naritive would be all wet if the truth be known
So the Government hides the truth from the American people.
This is how a dictator runs a country
Remove the FE from the BATFE. Apply all ammo rules to each ounce of alcohol, apply past court judgements to firearms manufacturers to the WINE industry in California, More people are killed by DUI than by FIREARMS..
“ A & T “ were the first revenue enhancements of the
Federales here . Those should be abolished as well .
Should that happen , along with the “ F&E “ , there
would be no need for a “ B “ either .
The Federales will never give up revenue , or the
opportunity to extort the same , under any circumstances .
The People are sheep to be sheared . If we will tolerate
it , nothing will change it .
The fbi has never been about aiding or protecting citizens. It has only ever been a tool of the government.
Well of course, this FBI and its equally complicit WH and DOJ aren’t going to ever admit the truth. The truth is anathema to their end goal of disarming legal US citizens by whatever means and lies necessary.
The FBI are known liars.
Please include a link to the database for this information. A comparison of what was included and what was not – can change people’s minds on this hotly debated subject.
In the instances where a threat was stopped…how many innocent civilians harmed by the citizen? How much property damage? No evidence to support the majority of gun owners are particularly trained for these types of incidents to prevent or minimize friendly fire or excessive damage a trained person could avoid. And frankly our gun communities aren’t ok with mandated/credentialed training for ownership and carry. So until there’s data that shows innocent civilians and public property can be minimized or avoided by untrained intervention of armed citizens…the govt will defer to discourage it.
Let me guess you are blue dogs cousin or something.
Has to be! 😂😂
Perhaps you need to improve your reading comprehension. The following is cut & pasted directly from the article above:
“And while there’s a possibility of a bystander getting hurt, the data put together by the CPRC show that an armed citizen has yet to accidentally shoot an innocent bystander.”
I don’t think the poster even read the article. It’s just a mindless, robotized shill that posts crap to denigrate articles that show firearms in a good light.
It is the Police that shoot innocent bystanders, not armed citizens. I’ve said this for decades.
It is the Police that need more firearm training.
It’s all-out controlling us, not the guns. They know the bad guys won’t stop carrying and using illegal guns. Hell most of the bad guys are payed for by the democrats. Blm and antfia are pet terrorists of the far left Communist democrats. They don’t want us being able to defend ourselves. A armed person is a road block to their complete take over of control. That’s why this gun crap is being done by the far left Communist democrat party. Don’t give in, if you do your lost.
gun control is people control in disguise. they are communist chipmunks.
They will not tell us nor correct their errors because the truth is counter to the desired outcome of disarming America. It has become more and more apparent that the FBI has become politicized with an identifiable left political tilt, a tilt that even survives Republican presidents.