(RightIsRight.co) – The FBI is undercounting the number of cases in which armed citizens thwart active shootings, according to the findings of a new report.
According to a study by the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), a nonprofit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that only 4.4% of active shooter incidents get stopped by armed citizens.
However, the CPRC research has discovered that the actual number is 34.4%, or thirty percentage points higher than the FBI claims, Breitbart News reported.
The nonprofit think tank has pointed out the recent example when on July 17, 2022, 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken shot and killed an active shooter at the Greenwood Park Mall in Greenwood, Indiana.
The study noted that mainstream media treated the case as being an infrequent occurrence, citing the following coverage examples:
“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); “After Indiana mall shooting, one hero but no lasting solution to gun violence”(New York Times).
The findings of the CPRC, however, completely contradict the coverage of the establishment media and the FBI data.
“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,” the think-tank said.
“Of course, law-abiding citizens stopping these attacks are not rare. What is rare is national news coverage of those incidents,” it added.
The CPRC also emphasized that in many cases, news coverage of the Greenwood shooting claimed that “defensive use of guns might endanger others.” However, the nonprofit has discovered no evidence whatsoever of innocent civilians getting harmed by defensive firearm use
The study cited FBI reports that only 11 of the 252 active shooter incidents in 2014-2021 were stopped by armed citizens.
“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,” the CPRC pointed out.
The think-tank identified 360 active shooter incidents in that period and established that an armed citizen stopped 124 of them.
It also added that there were another 24 cases in which armed civilians stopped armed attacks as the suspect didn’t manage to fire a gun.
“Whether deliberately through bias or just incompetence, the FBI database of active shooters cannot be trusted,” said Gary Mauser, a Simon Fraser University professor emeritus.
A study from the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) shows the FBI undercounts the number of times an armed citizen stops an active shooting. https://t.co/MTgpelLi5v
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 4, 2022
