Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has accused the FBI, CDC and media of deliberately suppressing data on defensive gun use. According to an article by Dr. John R. Lott Jr., both federal agencies and major media outlets have worked to hide information that shows how often law-abiding citizens use guns to stop crime.
Lott claims that the CDC removed its estimates of defensive gun use, which ranged from 64,000 to 3 million instances annually, after pressure from a gun control group. The removal came after concerns that the data was being used by gun rights advocates to push back against gun control legislation.
Lott also criticizes the FBI’s data on active shooter incidents, arguing that the agency’s broad definitions and reliance on news reports result in an undercount of cases where armed civilians stop attackers. While the FBI reports that only 14 of 350 active shooter incidents were stopped by civilians, Lott’s research found that 180 of 515 incidents involved an armed citizen stopping the shooter.
Massie warns that as election season heats up, so will the gun control debate, but he reminds Americans that the Second Amendment is about protecting their right to self-defense.
