Report: FBI undercounts number of times armed citizens have thwarted active shooting incidents

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Here's the link to CPRC's report. Data goes back to 2014 and discusses several criteria that responsible for the differences in reporting. It is important to read the entire report instead of just the Fox "headlines".
https://crimeresearch.org/2022/10/m...1-it-is-at-least-49-1-excluding-gun-free-zon/

Introduction

The shooting that killed three people and injured another at a Greenwood, Indiana, mall on July 17 drew broad national attention because of how it ended – when 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken, carrying a licensed handgun, fatally shot the attacker.

While Dicken was praised for his courage and skill – squeezing off his first shot 15 seconds after the attack began, from a distance of 40 yards – much of the immediate news coverage drew from FBI-approved statistics to assert that armed citizens almost never stop such attackers: “Rare in US for an active shooter to be stopped by bystander” (Associated Press); “Rampage in Indiana a rare instance of armed civilian ending mass shooting” (Washington Post); and “After Indiana mall shooting, one hero but no lasting solution to gun violence” (New York Times).

Evidence compiled by the Crime Prevention Research Center shows that the sources the media relied on undercounted the number of instances in which armed citizens have thwarted such attacks by an order of more than ten, saving untold numbers of lives. Of course, law-abiding citizens stopping these attacks are not rare. What is rare is national news coverage of those incidents. Although those many news stories about the Greenwood shooting also suggested that the defensive use of guns might endanger others, there is no evidence that these acts have harmed innocent victims.

The FBI reports that armed citizens only stopped 11 of the 252 active shooter incidents it identified for the period 2014-2021. The FBI defines active shooter incidents as those in which an individual actively kills or attempts to kill people in a populated, public area. But it does not include those it deems related to other criminal activity, such as a robbery or fighting over drug turf.

An analysis by my organization identified a total of 360 active shooter incidents during that period and found that an armed citizen stopped 124. A previous report looked at only instances when armed civilians stopped what likely would have been mass public shootings. There were another 24 cases that we didn’t include where armed civilians stopped armed attacks, but the suspect didn’t fire his gun. Those cases are excluded from our calculations, though it could be argued that a civilian also stopped what likely could have been an active shooting event.

The FBI reported that armed citizens thwarted 4.4% of active shooter incidents, while the CPRC found 34.4%.

Two factors explain this discrepancy – one, misclassified shootings; and two, overlooked incidents. Regarding the former, the CPRC determined that the FBI reports had misclassified five shootings: In two incidents, the Bureau notes in its detailed write-up that citizens possessing valid firearms permits confronted the shooters and caused them to flee the scene. However, the FBI did not list these cases as being stopped by armed citizens because police later apprehended the attackers. In two other incidents, the FBI misidentified armed civilians as armed security personnel. Finally, the FBI failed to mention citizen engagement in one incident.

For example, the Bureau’s report about the Dec. 29, 2019 attack on the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas, that left two men dead does not list this as an incident of “civic engagement.” Instead, the FBI lists this attack as being stopped by a security guard. A parishioner, who had volunteered to provide security during worship, fatally shot the perpetrator. That man, Jack Wilson, told Dr. John Lott that he was not a security professional. He said that 19 to 20 members of the congregation were armed that day, and they didn’t even keep track of who was carrying a concealed weapon.

As for the second factor — overlooked cases — the FBI, more significantly, missed 25 incidents identified by CPRC where what would likely have been a mass public shooting was thwarted by armed civilians. There were another 83 active shooting incidents that they missed.

There is no reason to think that the news media covers all the cases where civilians stopped attacks. And the farther back in time we go, the more cases we are likely to miss. The next table illustrates this bias. Using the 2014 to 2021 data clearly shows that 49.1% of active shooting attacks were stopped in 2021, 45.1% in 2020, and a declining percentage the farther back in time that we go. That pattern is consistent with us having a more difficult time finding cases that occurred farther in the past.

There is yet another reason that these corrected percentages are biased downward as they ignore that about half of these attacks occur where guns are banned, so law-abiding citizens who obey those rules wouldn’t have a chance to stop them. A copy of our Excel file and links for all the cases so people can check them are available here.

The FBI’s active shooting reports do not mention whether the attacks occur in gun-free zones. “The issue is that when places are posted as gun-free zones, law-abiding citizens obey those rules and would be unable to stop the attacks in those areas,” notes Carl Moody, a professor at William & Mary and the CPRC’s research director.
Click to expand...
 
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It is OT, and I think it would be nuked but I am going to try to just bring it up anyway. Go to the yous tubes and look for John stossel's hurricane video, only a few weeks old.

Where it relates into this thread is just how the lies are being told again and again. Just replace the word hurricane with gun and the same thing is going on. All to push an agenda.

Everything you read EVERYWHERE take with a grain of salt, do research across the entire board, then you can form thoughts on the subject. So much of what "media" is telling us are flat lies, so much of what alphabet agencies are telling us are lies.

hope a few get to read this before the mods nuke it.
 
Even though the FBI active shooter incident definition and data is restrained, in the reports I read they showed me:
_ Yes Virginia there have been bad guys with guns stopped by good guys with guns despite the naysayers who say it never happens
_ The FBI had only good things to say about the armed citizens who intervened.

If I recall correctly, the FBI active shooter reports listed only interventions by citizens with carry permits.
 
Both sides of the political spectrum are prone to putting their own spin on numbers and people go right along with it. An old professor of mine once said figures don't lie but liars can figure. If I can't measure it myself I take it with a grain of salt these days.
 
The concept that the Feds "collect information" might be a bit off target. The last I heard they receive info sent in by law enforcement agencies countrywide... If your local isn't sending the info I doubt anyone in Washington is out there looking for it. Similarly, it was interesting to note that two of our biggest cities (and maybe biggest problems...) haven't bothered to send their crime data in to the feds in recent times either (possibly out of embarrassment...). As a result any annual report by the Feds is a bit lacking (understatement). Manipulation of crime reporting statistics has been going on since the idea of "crime stats" was first though of - usually for deliberate political purposes -and that was always a factor when I was in law enforcement - all those years ago (1973-1995).

I'm long out of that world but I really would like to see an accounting of just what info the FBI is actually requesting each year - and whether there is any enforcement mechanism to "encourage" local and/or state agencies to actually comply these days... I suspect I already have an idea of what's occurring but would surely like to hear exactly what lies un- mentioned in the various news accounts I've seen.

In a world where some idiots think "defunding the police" is a good idea... all sorts of manipulation are probably going on... is probably a long established procedure in some jurisdictions...
 
A bunch of noise and off topic posts have been pruned out of this. That being said, please stick to the topic at hand and how it relates to us as gun owners or the bigger picture of furthering our rights. Any more tin foil or snappy one liners and we are done here. In other words, stay on topic.
 
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