Research: Do armed civilians stop active shooters more often than the headlines suggest?
Research published 22 September 2026 (CPRC); National Review op-ed 23 October 2026.
Two numbers keep turning up in the United States debate about armed civilians and active-shooter attacks: 3.9 percent and 36.6 percent. Both are used for 2014 through 2025, and the gap is large enough that people ask whether we are getting the full picture. Using counts the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) attributes to FBI reports, CPRC puts armed-citizen stops at 16 of 408 (3.9 percent). On CPRC's own list it is 225 of 615 (36.6 percent). Outside gun-free zones over the past five years, CPRC estimates 56.3 percent. The datasets are not identical; how incidents are identified and counted matters. COLFO is looking at international research and trends to grow its reference library, so licensed firearm owners can use our site to find reliable information from around the world.
