CPRC in the News: PJ Media, Cowboy State Daily, American Thinker, Salisbury Post,
The Crime Prevention Research Center found that more than 86% of police chiefs and sheriffs support “national reciprocity.” What that means is that a concealed carry permit holder from Arizona could cross into California and continue to carry. That would be a boon for people traveling alone or going to crime-invested cities. . . .
This is entirely reasonable, as anti-gun laws only prevent victims from being able to protect themselves; they never prevent dangerous criminals from obtaining weapons. As of 2018, 94% of mass shootings since 1950 had occurred in gun-free zones. For women especially, there is no tool so likely to even out a fight with an attacker as a gun.
The Washington Times reported on March 10: . . .
People legally carrying concealed firearms stop more mass shootings than police do, nationally-known gun rights researcher John Lott claims.
That’s proof that Wyoming made the right decision in repealing its gun-free zones, gun rights advocate Mark Jones of Buffalo told Cowboy State Daily.
However, gun control advocate Devin Hughes of Washington, D.C., argued that Lott’s research and conclusions are flawed, and having more firearms around increases danger.
In a recent article by Lott published in The Federalist, he claims that 51.5 % of active shootings between 2014 and 2023 were stopped by civilians with permits to carry concealed firearms.
Police stopped 44.6% of those shootings, Lott claims.
Lott No Stranger To Wyoming Gun Debates
Lott is probably best-known for his book, “More Guns, Less Crime” – in which argues in favor of law-abiding citizens being armed.
Over the past few legislative sessions, there were attempts to pass bills repealing Wyoming’s gun-free zones, and Lott’s research was frequently cited.
His claim that up to 94% of mass shootings take place in gun-free zones was cited numerous times by Wyomingites arguing for the elimination of gun-free zones.
Supporters of gun-free zones pushed back, claiming that Lott used sketchy research methods to reach that conclusion.
During a Feb. 18 debate before a legislative committee over House Bill 172, Lott appeared via Zoom, prepared to defend his research.
He was shut down by legislators upon hitting the allotted two-minute time limit for each person’s testimony.
HB 172 passed both chambers of the legislature. Gov. Mark Gordon on Feb. 27 allowed the bill to pass into law without signing it. He also slammed legislators, saying the bill amounted to power grab.
The repeal of gun-free zones is set to take effect on July 1. . . .
The Crime Prevention Research Center brought the receipts.
According to the findings of a new study from the CPRC, armed civilians “do a better job” than law enforcement officers to stop active shooters, “with fewer mistakes” to boot. Here’s what John R. Lott, Jr., president of the the CPRC, explained of the findings:
In non-gun-free zones, where civilians are legally able to carry guns, concealed carry permit holders stopped 51.5 percent of active shootings, compared to 44.6 percent stopped by police, CPRC found in a deep dive into active shooter scenarios between 2014 and 2023.
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.
I say this in all seriousness, God bless the work of the CPRC because compiled and organized data is invaluable in the gun debate, but of course armed Americans physically present for what’s fixing to be a massacre do a better job of preserving innocent life than government hires not near the coming carnage. As the saying goes, “When seconds count, police are minutes away.” . . .
Like permitted carry, permitless carry is intended not only for personal protection, but to deter violent crime. Despite grim prognostications for states adopting it, a 2024 report by Carlisle Moody and John R. Lott concluded, “(Right to carry) states have experienced significantly lower murder rates than those states that did not adopt RTC laws…Constitutional carry states, allowing the concealed carrying of handguns with no permit requirements, have experienced even larger declines in murder rates.”
As Lott describes in “More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws,” “shall-issue” concealed handgun permit laws deter violent criminals who, predictably, avoid armed victims. States with higher rates of concealed carry experience fewer murders, rapes and aggravated assaults. . . . .
According to the Government Accountability Office, in 2017, the NICS background check system denied 112,090 people the right to purchase a firearm. Of those 112,090 denials, only 12,710 were investigated. We have to ask ourselves: If over 112,000 people were denied but only 12,710 investigations took place, wouldn’t that be clear evidence that the system is failing and falsely denying good people their right to keep and bear arms?
It gets worse.
That same year, and from that group of 112,090 denials, there were only 12 prosecutions for the crime of attempting to purchase a firearm. Now the anti-gun crowd says, “See, we stopped 12 mass shootings!” . . .
John Lott from the Crime Prevention Research Center has claimed that the exact opposite is true, and approximately 99% of firearm purchase denials are false positives, meaning good people are being denied their rights for no reason. . . .
. . . A groundbreaking new study reveals that concealed carry permit holders are significantly more effective at stopping active shooters than police officers.
Research conducted by the Crime Prevention Research Center shows that civilians armed with concealed firearms halted 51.5% of active shooting incidents from 2014 to 2023.
In contrast, law enforcement was only able to stop 44.6% of these situations.
The study emphasizes a stark reality: permit holders not only intervene successfully but do so with fewer mistakes than police.
Over the studied timeframe, armed civilians intervened in 180 of 515 active shooter scenarios, a remarkable number that highlights the effectiveness of responsible gun ownership.
In areas where lawful gun carrying is permitted, civilians interrupted 158 out of 307 instances, showcasing their ability to act decisively in moments of crisis. . . .
According to the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), armed citizens intervened in approximately 180 active shooter incidents during the same timeframe, significantly elevating the potential for saving innocent lives.
This discrepancy indicates that the FBI’s crime data may be manipulated for political purposes, ultimately influencing national discourse surrounding gun rights and crime prevention.
The 2022 and 2023 statistics released by the FBI have further compounded concerns about transparency.
Just prior to the recent elections, the FBI quietly revised its 2022 homicide data, altering a reported 2.1% decline in violent crime to an alarming 4.5% increase. . . .
It used to be simple to get an idea of how many people legally carried a gun by checking how many permits were issued by each state. However, since 29 states currently allow permitless carry, getting reliable statistics is more difficult. The Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) tracks all aspects of gun ownership and crime across the United States, and unlike some organizations with a bias for gun control like Everytown for Gun Safety, the CPRC presents fair and accurate research results.
According to the CPRC, the number of Americans with concealed carry permits spiked in 2022 at 22 million, a 2.3% increase over 2021. That number dropped to 21.5 million in 2024 or about 8.2% of the overall population, a 1.8% drop from 2023. However, before believing the anti-2A claim that the drop in the number of permits indicates that fewer people are legally carrying firearms, consider that the number of states allowing permitless carry has increased since 2022 meaning more people than ever do not need a permit in their home state.
To get a more accurate idea of the number of people legally carrying a concealed firearm, the CPRC commissioned a survey of general election voters on December 17th, 2024, asking whether they carry concealed handguns. The survey found that 24% of those surveyed carry a concealed handgun. Breaking the 24% who said they carry further, 13% carried all or most of the time and 11% carried rarely or some of the time. Unsurprisingly, the results indicated that people living in permitless carry states carried more often than those living in shall-issue permit states. So much for the accuracy of measuring carry rates by the number of permits issued. Although the survey sample only consisted of general election voters, which leaves out anyone who did not vote, it does give us some numbers to work with. The survey also provided a lot of other information breaking carry rates down by gender, ethnicity, political party affiliation, age, and even who they voted for. The full survey can be found here. . . .
Mikial, “How Often Do You Carry Your Gun?” USA Carry, March 11, 2025.
A March 7th article on AmmoLand News, citing research from John Lott and the Crime Prevention Research Center, made it plain: concealed carry permit holders are among the most law-abiding demographics in the country. Yet New York refuses to acknowledge this reality. . . .
Dr. John Lott’s Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) website lists at least 328 documented instances in just 2024 in which a person lawfully carrying defended themselves or others from a criminal attack.
The CPRC has now released new data examining “active shooting” incidents (as defined by the FBI) in the United States over a ten-year period starting in 2014, and in particular, how concealed handgun permit holders respond in these situations.
The CPRC compared outcomes in the armed civilian cases with how law enforcement performed and offers many valuable conclusions. Armed civilians were less likely than police officers to accidentally cause harm to bystanders, and there were no cases in which the civilian responder interfered with the law enforcement response.
The CPRC examined the 180 active shooting cases in the study period in which a concealed handgun permit holder stopped an active shooting attack. (An Excel document with the details of each case is included in the CPRC article link.)
Out of the 180 incidents, there was only one case each (0.56%) of a concealed handgun permit holder accidentally shooting a bystander or having their handgun taken away. Although there were two cases (1.1%) in which where the permit-holder was killed, it was much more likely for the permit holder to be injured in saving the lives of others (44 cases, or 24%). There were no instances where the permit holder “got in the way of police.” Most significantly, the CPRC maintains that there were 58 cases “where a mass public shooting was likely prevented” by the permit holder.
In contrast, police officers shot and killed the wrong person in four cases (two in which another officer was accidentally shot, and two involving innocent bystanders), meaning the rate at which police accidentally shoot bystanders is over twice the rate at which armed civilians cause such harm (1.14% versus 0.56%). Police officers were also “much more likely to lose their lives or be wounded in stopping these attacks than armed civilians.” Officers were shot and wounded in just over 28% of the cases and killed in almost 8% of the cases. The rate at which police officers were killed was 5.94 times greater than the rate for permit holders.
The CPRC also found that armed civilians with concealed handgun permits appeared to be more effective, overall, at stopping an active shooting event. Such civilians “stopped 51.5% of the active shootings in non-gun-free zones, [while] police stopped 44.6% of the cases (124 arrested or killed by police, 32 committed suicide when police arrived = 156/350 = 44.57%).” The CPRC offers no explanations for this, but one possible reason may be that the armed civilian is more likely to already be on the scene than the summoned first responders, with a grasp of the danger as it unfolded. . . .
Staff, “The Many Ways Concealed Carry Permitees Enhance Public Safety,” Ammoland, March 7, 2025.
