FBI Underestimates Armed Civilians Stopping Mass Shootings
New research suggests the FBI has greatly undervalued the role of armed civilians in preventing mass shootings in the U.S. While the FBI reported that civilians intervened in only 3.7% of cases, the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) claims that these civilians actually stopped at least 36% of active shooter incidents between 2014 and 2024.
The report, released recently, indicates that earlier FBI data promoted the idea that civilian interventions were quite rare, thus downplaying the advantages of legal gun ownership. Interestingly, it appears that armed civilians thwarted almost half (about 47.8%) of aggressive shooter situations reported in 2024. The FBI, however, recorded none, leading the CPRC to pull evidence from local news for these instances.
Many of the reported cases went unnoticed by the FBI, and the CPRC also pointed out misclassifications. Some scenarios involved civilians prompting active shooters to flee, but the FBI credited only law enforcement with stopping suspects, while arrests followed.
For instance, in June 2024, there was a confrontation in Martinsburg, West Virginia. During this altercation, a woman with a handgun intervened and discouraged a man from escalating the situation. In another example, a man was killed during a shooting in Thomasville, North Carolina, after armed individuals returned fire against him, preventing potential further casualties.
It’s important to note that the CPRC stated its examples aren’t exhaustive, acknowledging that many active shooter cases may not have received media coverage since 2014.
The FBI did not provide a response to comment requests regarding these findings. They previously noted that undercounting is an issue but emphasized that their focus isn’t on cataloging every active shooter incident, suggesting that their methods give a “baseline understanding” of the problem.
The CPRC remarked, “It’s not unusual for citizens to comply with laws that help prevent these attacks,” pointing out that national news coverage of such civilian interventions is relatively scarce.
