Good guys with guns

Do Armed Civilians Stop Active Shooters More Effectively Than Police?
March 12, 2026
We recently came across a 39-page study—originally conducted in April 2025 and revised in October 2025—that was simply too compelling not to share. Titled “Do Armed Civilians Stop Active Shooters More Effectively Than Uniformed Police?”, the research was conducted by John R. Lott Jr. of the Crime Prevention Research Center and Carlisle E. Moody, Professor of Economics (Emeritus) at the College of William and Mary. It takes a deep, data-driven look at a widely debated question: who is more effective at stopping active shooter events—armed civilians or law enforcement?

Armed Civilians Stopped More Attacks


Armed civilians stopped more active shooter incidents than police did.

In the dataset:

35% of incidents were stopped by armed civilians

30% were stopped by police

The remaining incidents ended through other means (suicide, fleeing, or unarmed intervention)

This doesn’t mean police are ineffective—it highlights something important about timing.

Police typically respond after an attack begins, while civilians are often already on-site when it starts. That proximity can make a critical difference in how quickly a threat is stopped.

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How Many Lives Are Saved in America by “Good Guys with Guns”?
There is no single, definitive number of lives saved in the U.S. by defensive gun use, and the available data is highly contested due to differences in definitions, survey methods, and reporting.

Key points from research:

Defensive gun use (DGU) refers to instances where law-abiding citizens use firearms to protect themselves, others, or property from perceived threats. These can include brandishing a gun, firing at a threat, or using a firearm defensively without a shot being fired Concealed Nation+1.

Estimates vary widely:

The most conservative U.S. government estimate (from the National Crime Victimization Survey) is about 65,000 DGUs per year Ammo.com.

Broader survey-based studies suggest 60,000 to 2.5 million DGUs annually, with an average around 1.82 million Legal Reader+1.

Some analyses, like the Heritage Foundation’s, note that most DGUs are never reported to law enforcement Data Visualizations | The Heritage Foundation.

Lives saved is a separate question from DGU counts. The 1997 Justice Department study that inspired the “1.5 million lives saved” claim did not state that those defensive uses prevented deaths — it only counted defensive uses, many of which involved no actual threat or injury PolitiFact.

Self-defense outcomes: In cases where a firearm was discharged, studies suggest that in many instances the threat was neutralized, but not all DGUs result in a fatality. The actual number of lives prevented is likely much lower than the total DGU count.

Summary:
While some political and advocacy sources cite “millions of lives saved” annually, no government or independent research confirms that figure. The most credible estimates of DGUs range from hundreds of thousands to over two million per year, but the number of actual lives prevented is unknown and likely smaller, as many defensive uses involve non-lethal outcomes or unreported incidents

Do you know why we rarely hear about mass shootings involving fully automatic weapons? Because they are very tightly regulated, making them extremely difficult and expensive to obtain.

So, regulations can work.

And if your stance is that "bad guys will find a way to get them," then why doesn’t America have frequent RPG attacks? Is it maybe because you can't simply buy an RPG at a sporting goods store because they are highly regulated?

Bad guys don't regularly get them because the laws and regulations surrounding them actually work.

Get it? Regulations work!

So make more of them!

Hell yeah !

If she's a good shot, sure I would!

America loving good guy, stops Tesla hating Liberal at In-N-Out shooting.

Good guy with gun saves lives again.

Well, that pretty much happened in the UK, to be fair. We may not be getting along fine, that's another story, but everyone, including criminals, turned in their guns, pretty much.

If these blue cities got control over their people and brought down murder rates.
Our country would have much lower murder rate. And it is not really those cities,
it is actually very small consolidated areas within those cities. Most of Chicago is safe,
but the same small areas have multiple shootings every week.

Cities with the Highest Homicide Rates
Chicago, Illinois: Chicago has consistently been noted for its high number of murders, recording 573 homicides in 2024, making it the city with the most murders in the U.S.

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St. Louis, Missouri: St. Louis has the highest homicide rate per capita, with 52.9 homicides per 100,000 residents

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New Orleans, Louisiana: New Orleans has the highest homicide rate among large metro areas, with 34.1 homicides per 100,000 residents

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Baltimore, Maryland: Baltimore also features prominently with a homicide rate of 35.6 per 100,000 residents

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Memphis, Tennessee: Memphis has a high homicide rate of 38.0 per 100,000 residents, ranking second in per capita murders

@DogMan I made a post about who wins a witch or a gun please can you vote and comment your reason for your vote? 🤫🤫🤫

https://similarworlds.com/paganism/witches/5637417-Who-wins-a-witch-or-a-gun-So-three-days-ago-Isabella-and-her

There is no data for defensive gun use. There have been some studies.

Annual defensive gun use in the U.S.
A 2019 study by Gary Kleck estimated about 2.1 million defensive gun uses (DGUs) occur each year in the U.S., often ending with the offender fleeing and little or no injury. These incidents include shootings, brandishing's, and other defensive actions.

Elwood, why are you and Samuel afraid to answer this simple question? You know the correct
answer, but your left wing bias makes you afraid to answer, why is that?


Elwood, I will ask you the same thing I asked Sam, and he would not answer. If an active shooter
was shooting at your family and friends, would you want a good guy with a gun to engage him?

Simple question.

Top 10 Murder Cities (2024)

Chicago, Illinois 461 2.72%

New York, New York 325 1.92%

Los Angeles, California 324 1.91%

Houston, Texas 320 1.89%

Los Angeles, California 264 1.56%

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 262 1.55%

Memphis, Tennessee 249 1.47%

Detroit, Michigan 203 1.20%

Baltimore, Maryland 197 1.16%

New Orleans, Louisiana 193 1.14%

Good guys with guns save lives everyday. It doesn't make national media, and it doesn't make it
to the data sheets. Here is another one from a couple days ago.

BY EMILY ASHCRAFT, KSL
KSLNewsRadio
RIVERTON — One man who entered a Riverton Chevron Holiday gas station with a shotgun is dead after officials said an armed, unaffiliated person engaged with him.

Riverton public information officer Nate Slack said the man, Ofa’tangikivaha Angilau, 23, was shot and killed by the other individual who had a weapon.

Luckily no innocent people were killed, only the gun man.

Sam, is this really your answer?

Would i want a police officer to respond, you bet, but a citizen like you, no!

Tell your family Sam, that you would not want me to save their lives because you do not like
my opinions.

Absolutely! The loony left has weaponized their cult followers, programming them with blind hate and rage, and they opened our borders to criminals and terrorists. Decent American citizens have to be able to defend themselves.

How does one become a "good guy"? Is there a federal agency where one can be issued with a certificate? What about the gals? 🤔

the duration of a mass shooting is determined by the time it takes for another gun to arrive!...

We learned this weekend that all you need is a van and a machete to cause mass casualties.

None of the biggest mass killings in America were done with guns.

Gun haters refuse to answer this question.

"If an active shooter was shooting at your family and friends, would you want a good guy with a gun to engage him?"

Simple question that they are scared to death to answer

I can think of only one media report where a good guy with a gun might have saved people... As opposed to bad guys with guns who kill people.... Despite what they tell you I think guns just maybe part of the problem

Uk gave up their guns and now they are raped and shot at will. Being arrested for a fb post. Smh

@DogMan
Asking the American to get rid of his gun is like asking the Jew to do away with his money. You brought guns to America, and since the War of Independence the gun has not left your side.

Keep your guns, you do not want to be like Waveney and SunshineGirl. The European no longer has a soul. Be American.

OK then so. Let's get to the real meat of the problem:

Who are you blaming for the rise in gun violence in America?

Almost every major study has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times annually, according to a 2013 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2021, the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the issue concluded that roughly 1.6 million defensive gun uses occur in the United States every year.

No wonder gun control activists pressured the CDC two years ago into quietly removing those numbers from the agency’s website. But defenders of the Second Amendment should keep shouting the facts from the rooftops, despite efforts to silence us.

Gun Control folks DO NOT want the public to hear about how many lives are saved each year
due to Good Guys with Guns.

Yes