{"id":108281,"date":"2025-03-11T22:05:59","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T03:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=108281"},"modified":"2025-03-11T22:05:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T03:05:59","slug":"108281","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=108281","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

BLUF
\nHeroic citizens stopping bad guys would be just as interesting to watch as police stopping crimes, but permit holders are rarely portrayed that way on television. This reluctance to show normal good guys with guns endangers public safety by fostering a false perception that armed civilians are more of a threat than a solution.<\/p>\n

If we truly care about public safety, we should acknowledge the proven role that responsible gun owners play in stopping violent attacks \u2014 rather than avoiding the truth for the sake of an anti-gun agenda.<\/p>\n

Study: Concealed Carriers Do A Better Job Of Stopping Active Shooters Than Police<\/a><\/p>\n

You\u2019d never know it from watching television, but civilians stop more active shooters than police and do so with fewer mistakes, according to new research from the Crime Prevention Research Center, where I serve as president. In non-gun-free zones, where civilians are legally able to carry guns, concealed carry permit holders stopped\u00a051.5 percent of active shootings<\/a>, compared to\u00a044.6 percent stopped by police<\/a>, CPRC found in a deep dive into active shooter scenarios between 2014 and 2023.<\/p>\n

Not only do permit holders succeed in stopping active shooters at a higher rate, but law enforcement officers face significantly greater risks when intervening. Our research found police were nearly six times more likely to be killed and 17 percent more likely to be wounded than armed civilians.<\/p>\n

Those numbers paint a fuller picture than the FBI\u2019s crime statistics, which\u00a0fail<\/a>\u00a0to include many of the defensive gun uses my organization has cataloged. But the problem with the FBI\u2019s crime statistics isn\u2019t just the errors in their reported data \u2014 they also fail to address useful questions, like how concealed handgun permit holders compare to law enforcement. Kash Patel and Dan Bongino face a major challenge in reforming how the data is collected and reported at the FBI.<\/p>\n

What We Found<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

From\u00a02014 to 2023, CPRC researchers found that armed civilians stopped\u00a0180 of 515 active shooting cases<\/a>. Of the attacks in places where people were allowed to carry, we found that permit holders stopped 158 of the 307 instances. The FBI\u00a0defines<\/a>\u00a0an \u201cactive shooting\u201d as an event where an individual actively attempts to kill people in a public place \u2014 excluding shootings tied to robberies or gang violence. An \u201cactive shooting\u201d could be as simple as a single shot fired at a lone human target, even if the shooter misses, to a mass shooting.<\/p>\n

The Crime Prevention Research Center\u2019s findings tell a very different story than the narrative you\u2019ll see on television.<\/p>\n

Of the 180 total instances where an armed civilian stopped an active shooting, did permit holders end up accidentally shooting bystanders? In just one case (0.56 percent).<\/p>\n

Did they interfere with police?\u00a0In zero cases\u00a0(0.0 percent).<\/p>\n

Did they lose their lives in the confrontation?\u00a0In two cases\u00a0(1.1 percent).<\/p>\n

Were they injured while saving lives?\u00a0In 44 cases\u00a0(24.4 percent).<\/p>\n

Was the shooting they prevented likely to be a mass public shooting? In 58 cases (32 percent).<\/p>\n

Did they have their gun taken away?\u00a0In one case\u00a0(0.56 percent).<\/p>\n

Civilians don\u2019t succeed in stopping every active shooter situation, but the\u00a0alternative isn\u2019t perfection.\u00a0Police officers are often at a disadvantage because their uniforms make them obvious targets, while civilians can stop an attacker before being noticed. Compare the numbers from active shootings stopped by police versus those stopped by armed civilians, and permit holders stack up pretty well.<\/p>\n

In the 156 cases stopped by law enforcement, we found police accidentally shot the wrong person\u00a0in\u00a0four cases, killing fellow officers twice and civilians twice.\u00a0That\u2019s more than double the rate of civilians accidentally shooting a bystander (1.14 percent compared to 0.56 percent).<\/p>\n

According to our research, 27 police were shot and killed while trying to stop an active shooter, a 7.7 percent rate, which is nearly six times higher than the rate for permit holders.<\/p>\n

One hundred police were wounded, a 28.6 percent rate, compared to 24.4 percent for permit holders.<\/p>\n

Police never had their guns taken away from them.<\/p>\n

These findings highlight a reality that is often ignored: responsible gun owners save lives. Concealed handgun permit holders aren\u2019t reckless vigilantes, but they are law-abiding citizens who step up in moments of crisis when seconds matter and police are minutes away.<\/p>\n

TV Isn\u2019t Reality<\/h2>\n

Even though law-abiding citizens who carry concealed firearms stop active shootings with few mistakes \u2014 in some cases with fewer mistakes than police \u2014 TV police dramas portray armed civilians as\u00a0causing more harm<\/a>\u00a0than good in self-defense situations. These shows repeatedly push the idea that civilians shouldn\u2019t play the hero and should instead leave everything to the police. Concealed handgun permit holders are portrayed as reckless vigilantes who leave a disaster behind them:\u00a0accidentally shooting bystanders<\/a>,\u00a0interfering with law enforcement<\/a>,\u00a0failing to protect themselves<\/a>, or even\u00a0having their guns stolen<\/a>\u00a0and misused in crimes or\u00a0accidental shootings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gun control organizations\u00a0openly brag<\/a>\u00a0about working with producers, directors, and writers to push their gun control narrative. And many in Hollywood\u00a0proudly admit<\/a>\u00a0their efforts to use television and movies to change the culture.<\/p>\n

Heroic citizens stopping bad guys would be just as interesting to watch as police stopping crimes, but permit holders are rarely portrayed that way on television. This reluctance to show normal good guys with guns endangers public safety by fostering a false perception that armed civilians are more of a threat than a solution.<\/p>\n

If we truly care about public safety, we should acknowledge the proven role that responsible gun owners play in stopping violent attacks \u2014 rather than avoiding the truth for the sake of an anti-gun agenda.<\/p>\n

\n
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BLUF Heroic citizens stopping bad guys would be just as interesting to watch as police stopping crimes, but permit holders are rarely portrayed that way on television. This reluctance to show normal good guys with guns endangers public safety by fostering a false perception that armed civilians are more of a threat than a solution. … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rkba","category-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=108281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108282,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108281\/revisions\/108282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=108281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=108281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=108281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}