You’d never know it from watching television, but civilians stop more active shooters than police and do so with fewer mistakes, according to new research from the Crime Prevention Research Center, where I serve as president. 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.
They do it for free, too. Voluntarily.
3 comments:
I speculate two reasons for this.
One is that the armed civilians are more intimately familiar with the environment, including the players and the bystanders, and so are unlikely to shoot unnecessarily and when shooting, are less likely either to hesitate or to shoot the wrong person(s). Many of us train more often with our firearms than do many police.
Police, when they patrol, don't necessarily have the same cop(s) patrolling the same neighborhood from time to time, and they don't do it on foot. In Plano, the police do put the same cop on the same beat, but it's a large beat, and he's in a patrol car, alone. One pair of eyes to drive, track traffic, monitor his computer setup and coms, and look around. I've had occasion to ride along in a Plano police car: it's a crowded cockpit, and his radio is a hand-held and button-operated, it's not even on his epaulet or connected via Bluetooth.
Also, the police actually are hesitant to shoot, out of fear of litigation, even criminal charges.
Eric Hines
Along these lines, this Colion Noir podcast, an hour long, presents a different perspective: an unarmed witness to a nascent mass shooting and his feeling of helplessness watching the situation unfold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpAzcyBUkQc
Unlike a lot of podcast hosts, Noir lets his guest do most of the talking.
Eric Hines
I speculated along the same lines, and would add that an armed civilian bystander might more easily get the drop on the bad guy. The cop has to show up and announce himself, and may even have been obvious from his car and uniform before he can get close.---I don't go armed, and hope I never have to choose between cowering in a mass shooting or sacrificing myself by throwing my body on the gunman, but those appear to be the two clear choices.
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