Errors in Associated Press article on how rarely active shooting cases are stopped by concealed carry permit holders

Errors in Associated Press article titled “Rare in US for an active shooter to be stopped by bystander.”

It isn’t common for mass shootings to be stopped in such fashion. From 2000 to 2021, fewer than 3% of 433 active attacks in the U.S. ended with a civilian firing back, according to the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University. The researchers define the attacks as one or more people targeting multiple people

Unfortunately, this report was done while Dr. John Lott was at the US DOJ as the senior advisor for research and statistics at OJP and OLP.

Corrections to the FBI’s Reports on Active Shooting Incidents

Abstract

The claim in the original FBI report that active shooting cases have increased over time resulted from data errors, both in terms of how the cases were collected and the missing of many attacks. Some of the cases that the original reports missed involved as many as four to nine people being murdered.

For the period from 2014 to 2019, the FBI had missed additional cases. Once those cases are included, there were 25 cases out of 162 (15.4%) where people with permitted concealed handguns stopped the attacks. The FBI reports exclude cases where shooting attacks have been stopped by concealed handgun permit holders. To put it differently, while 36% of active shooting attacks have occurred in places where guns are allowed, almost half (42.3%) of those were stopped by people who legally carry concealed handguns.

In light of these errors, media, courts, law enforcement, and policymakers, are advised to rely on the updated, corrected data provided in this report.