Study Reveals Armed Citizens Halted Significant Number of Active Shooter Incidents

A report from John Lott, the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), indicates that armed citizens prevented about one-third of all active shooter incidents between 2014 and 2025.

Lott subsequently highlighted this CPRC data to counter FBI claims that armed citizens were involved in only 3.9 percent of such incidents.

During his tenure at the Department of Justice under President Trump, Lott stated that he was responsible for assessing the FBI’s active shooter reports. In that process, he noted that he found many instances where the reports either missed or mischaracterized cases where armed civilians successfully thwarted attacks.

According to the FBI, there were 418 active shooter incidents during the specified timeframe, attributing only 16 of these to armed citizens. In contrast, CPRC documented 615 active shooter incidents and concluded that armed civilians intervened in 225 of them.

Additionally, Lott mentioned that his data excluded 35 more cases where armed citizens prevented attacks without having to fire a shot.

He emphasized that the motivation for sharing this information stemmed from media coverage of the armed father who intervened during the Silver Rail Elementary School attack on October 15, 2026. Lott referenced an Associated Press article about this event, which remarked on the rarity of mass shootings ending with an armed civilian firing at the assailant.

The AP relies on the same information source for active shooter incidents as the FBI.