Review of CPRC Count of Armed Citizens
who Stop Active Shooter Attacks

On July 30, 2023, the Crime Prevention Research Center (CRPC) published a paper showing massive errors in the FBI Active Shooter Reports from 2014 through 2023. This correspondent has been following the issue for the entire period. The first viral post this correspondent wrote about the subject of armed civilians stopping mass murders was published on December 15, 2012. It had 16 incidents documented from October, 1997 to 11 December 2012. All of these incidents occurred before the FBI started collecting data on "active shooter" incidents.

The CRPC paper, with a solid institution and organization behind it, does a better job than a single blogger did at the end of 2012. The CRPC shows how badly the FBI has bungled the job of tracking these events. The first FBI report was published ten months later, during the Obama administration, in September of 2013. The CRPC covered the problems with the FBI report in October of 2014.

The reason for the difference in the numbers reported by the FBI is not immediately obvious. It happens because of the way the FBI structured its approach to finding the incidents and deciding if they qualify for inclusion.

According to the FBI, the FBI, under the Obama administration, started to report "active shooter incidents", as part of the Investigative Assistance for Violent Crimes Act of 2012, 28 USC 530C(b)(1)(M)(1). …