Dr. John Lott appeared on The Miller Report: Real Clear Journalism to discuss the real numbers behind armed citizens stopping shootings. See also Dr. Lott’s new investigative piece based on our research at Real Clear Investigations titled “Unaccountable: The FBI’s Strange Refusal to Fix Key Crime Stats.”
(Thursday, October 9, 2025)
A major discrepancy in FBI data is raising new questions about how America tracks gun violence. In this episode of The Miller Report: Real Clear Journalism, Maggie Miller sits down with economist and head of the Crime Prevention Research Center John R. Lott Jr. to discuss his latest investigation into the FBI’s flawed accounting of active shooter incidents with regards to armed civilians stopping shooters.
Lott’s research reveals that for over a decade, the FBI has drastically undercounted how often armed civilians stop active shooters — recording just a handful of cases while independent analysis found dozens more. We discuss why these numbers matter, what’s behind the FBI’s reluctance to correct the record, and how bad data can distort policy on gun-free zones and public perception.
The full investigation complete with a link to the Crime Research Prevention Center’s study showing the missed cases of the FBI can be found here.
