But the Crime Prevention Research Center did its own study and found the FBI missed a number of cases and misclassified others. CPRC said when those are included properly, “good guys with guns” were involved in stopping more than a third of active-shooter attacks.
Subtracting out attacks in areas where concealed-carry permit holders aren’t allowed to have weapons, the ratio of attacks stopped is even higher, according to CPRC President John R. Lott Jr. . . .
Readers might want to know: How often do civilians use guns to help stop shooters who pose ongoing threats to multiple people? (By “civilian,” I mean here someone other than a police officer or a security guard; off-duty military members qualify for my purposes.) . . .
Still, thanks to a Crime Prevention Research Center spreadsheet, I can say that in 2025 there appeared to have been at least a dozen such incidents. The CPRC report says there were 23; I went through the list, checked the linked news accounts, and tried to exclude ones that seemed just like one-on-one self-defense situations or matters where the defender seemed clearly unsuccessful. (One-on-one self-defense is of course worthy on its own, but it’s not what I’m discussing here.) With those exclusions, and trying to be relatively conservative in what I counted, I ended up counting 12 to 14 such incidents in 2025, depending on how you evaluate some of the more ambiguous ones.
Nor does 2025 appear to be unusual. According to the CPRC report, there were roughly the same number of incidents (or in some years, even more) in 2020-2024 as in 2025. I expect that conservative counts for those years would likewise be comparable to my count for 2025.
None of the 2025 defensive gun use incidents were at a school, but gun possession is generally illegal in schools, so it’s unsurprising that law-abiding gun owners can rarely stop such shootings. They can of course enter the school after the shooting starts, as the man in the Oregon shooting did, but that involves a higher degree of difficulty.
The 2025 incidents, with the date, state, city (and link to news article), and excerpt from the news article: . . .
Anyone who’s followed school shootings knows that the perpetrators aren’t dumb. Their own scrawls, that for whatever reason we’re obliged to call “manifestos,” always consider what kind of security they would be up against — even if the murderer is a suicidal dipstick. If somebody is there with guns, they always demur. Ask John Lott if you doubt me. He’s read all of the manifestos. . . .
Victoria Taft, “There Was Another Hero During Oregon School Shooting, and We Have Questions,” PJ Media, October 17, 2026.
Il Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) ha esaminato ripetutamente le definizioni utilizzate dall’FBI per classificare gli interventi dei civili nei crimini violenti, riscontrando un numero di casi significativamente superiore a quello riportato dall’FBI stessa. In altre parole, l’FBI stava sopprimendo i dati reali sui civili che, spesso con le proprie armi da fuoco, risolvevano situazioni di pericolo.
Un recente studio del CPRC ha identificato 615 episodi di sparatorie attive tra il 2014 e il 2025, concludendo che cittadini armati ne hanno fermati 225 (circa il 36,6%). Se si considerano solo i luoghi in cui i civili sono legalmente autorizzati a portare armi (escludendo quindi le zone in cui è vietato il porto d’armi), la percentuale sale a circa il 52-53% (e in alcuni recenti esempi relativi a singoli anni è persino superiore).
Il CPRC attribuisce questa lacuna al fatto che l’FBI abbia trascurato o ignorato numerosi incidenti e occasionalmente classificato erroneamente gli interventi civili (ad esempio, includendo cittadini privati armati o volontari della sicurezza delle chiese come guardie di sicurezza professionali). Sostengono che il loro elenco ampliato utilizzi ancora la definizione di base dell’FBI e che la copertura mediatica tenda a sottovalutare gli interventi civili andati a buon fine.
Sebbene i sostenitori del controllo delle armi citino spesso le sparatorie di massa come motivo per vietare le armi (o addirittura confiscarle), questi episodi rappresentano in media solo il 2% di tutti i decessi causati da armi da fuoco negli Stati Uniti. La maggior parte (circa il 60%) è dovuta a suicidi e il 35% a omicidi.
Circa il 20% delle contee statunitensi rappresenta il 90% di tutti gli omicidi nel paese. Di queste contee, la stragrande maggioranza è amministrata dai Democratici. Tra l’1% delle contee statunitensi con il più alto tasso di criminalità (circa 31 contee, che ospitano circa il 20% della popolazione e, secondo i dati più recenti, circa il 41% degli omicidi), il CPRC elenca le seguenti tendenze politiche: 21 sono roccaforti democratiche, 6 tendono ai Democratici e 4 sono indecise o tendono ai Repubblicani. . . .
The Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) has repeatedly examined the definitions used by the FBI to categorize civilian interventions in violent crimes, and they found significantly higher numbers of such cases than the FBI had reported. In other words, the FBI was suppressing the actual data on civilians saving the day, often with their own firearms.
One recent CPRC count identified 615 active shooter incidents from 2014–2025 and concluded armed citizens stopped 225 of them (about 36.6%). When limited to locations where civilians are legally allowed to carry (i.e., excluding gun-free zones), the rate rises to roughly 52–53% (and higher in some recent single-year examples).
CPRC attributes the gap to the FBI missing or overlooking numerous incidents and occasionally misclassifying civilian interventions (for example, listing private armed citizens or volunteer church security as professional security guards). They argue their expanded list still uses the FBI’s core definition and that media coverage tends to under-emphasize successful civilian interventions.
While gun control advocates often cite mass shootings as a reason for banning of weapons (or outright confiscation), these incidents account for only 2% of all gun deaths in the US on average. The majority (around 60%) are suicides, and 35% are homicides.
Around 20% of US counties account for 90% of all homicides in the country. Of these counties, the vast majority are controlled by Democrats. Among the worst 1% of US counties (about 31 counties, holding ~20% of the population and ~41% of murders in recent data), the CPRC lists political leanings as 21 Democratic strongholds, 6 leaning Democratic, and 4 swing or Republican-leaning.
In other words, the counties with the most aggressive gun control advocates and laws in the US are also the places with the most gun violence. Perhaps it’s because law abiding citizens in these places are far less likely to carry, which emboldens criminals to commit more violence.
The Crime Prevention Research Center’s study of school shootings from 2000 through 2018 found that schools allowing teachers to carry are exponentially more safe than those which do not, and had not experienced a single shooting death or injury during school hours. Not a single one. . . .
Carson Wagner, “On Gun Control & Arming Teachers,” The Compass, October 19, 2026.
John Lott Jr. is an American economist, political commentator, and gun rights advocate who believes in the 2nd Amendment and has vehemently argued against restricting gun rights. He has crunched all the numbers and has written for both academic and popular media outlets. He has authored books such as More Guns, Less Crime, The Bias Against Guns, and Freedomnomics. In 2019 he made a presentation to Congress called: Schools that Allow Teachers to Carry Guns are Extremely Safe: Data on the Rate of Shootings and Accidents in Schools that allow Teachers to Carry
Wyden should have done some homework before circulating that statement. According to author and researcher Dr. John Lott, founder of the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), “Only 25 of the 197 school districts in Oregon ban staff from carrying guns, and the attack occurred in one of those 25 school districts. The CPRC hired McLaughlin & Associates completed a survey in August that showed voters by a 51.4% to 35.7% margin support armed teachers, parents with children in K-12 support by an even larger 57.3% to 30.2% margin.” . . .
Dave Workman, “Oregon School Shooter Violated Existing ‘Common Sense Gun Laws’,” Ammoland, October 19, 2026.
Dr. John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center is my favorite source on the subject.
Lott pointed to CPRC research covering active shootings from 2014 through 2024. It shows legally armed civilians stopped more active attacks than police did during that time.
But if you use the actual statistics, it puts the lie to the arguments of anti-gun groups in America. . . .
Lars Larson, “Statistics that beat the “damn lies”,” LarsLarson.com, October 19, 2026.
The CDC’s defensive gun-use numbers are back. But after a four-year disappearing act, Dr. John Lott says the bigger question is why the agency removed them in the first place.
In a recent One America News interview, the Crime Prevention Research Center president argued that political pressure influenced how the federal government presented defensive gun-use research.
Lott expanded on that argument in a new Federalist op-ed. He credited the Trump administration with restoring the material and correcting part of the CDC’s original estimate. . . .
Larry Z, “John Lott: CDC Restores Defensive Gun Use Data,” GunsAmerica, October 19, 2026.
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