New CPRC analysis says armed civilians halted over a third of active-shooter events since 2014
A report by the Crime Prevention Research Center claims armed citizens stopped 36.6% of active-shooter incidents between 2014 and 2025, far higher than FBI figures.
The Crime Prevention Research Center released a study showing that armed civilians disrupted 225 of 615 active-shooter incidents from 2014 through 2025, representing 36.6 percent of cases. This contrasts sharply with FBI data, which records 418 incidents and credits civilians with stopping only 16. John Lott, CPRC president and former Department of Justice employee, said his review uncovered numerous omissions and misclassifications in the FBI’s reports, adding another 35 cases where armed citizens prevented attacks before any gunfire.
Lott highlighted the recent Silver Rail Elementary School shooting in Oregon, where an armed parent halted the assailant, as a catalyst for publishing the revised figures. The report challenges the official narrative that civilian gun owners play a minimal role in ending mass-shootings. Critics may question the methodology, but the CPRC argues its broader dataset offers a more accurate picture of civilian intervention.
Why it matters
It reveals a large gap between official statistics and independent data on civilian gun interventions in mass-shootings.
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