I go over how the FBI hides defensive gun use data and uses unique framings to downplay self-defense significance.
Catch behind-the-scenes posts and help choose my next video topic at:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thepholosopher
If you want to become a more philosophical thinker for liberty and stand out from the crowd, pick up Philosophical Voluntaryism. It will equip you with the fundamental reasoning tools needed to maximize your potential and guide you toward a peaceful and prosperous life through the consistent application of Voluntaryist ethical principles.
Get your own copy here: https://amzn.to/3M4KLnx
(affiliate)
Transcript
How the FBI Hides Defensive Gun Use Data
When people hear crime statistics, they often take those statistics at face value without considering important questions like:
How does the data get collected in the first place?
Who is defining the terminology for classification?
and,
What could potentially be missing?
These questions are especially important when looking at the FBI’s crime statistics, which are often touted in the media for various click-bait headlines.
Until recently, most were blissfully unaware that not only is the FBI’s data collection incomplete, but there are some serious issues in how they frame their reporting.
To understand the situation, it’s important to look at a recent event that caused a media stir.
The FBI claimed that murder and violent crime was dropping across the country between 2022 and 2023.
Many rightfully thought this should warrant some skepticism considering how soft on crime states like California and New York have been, especially, since the lockdowns.
The skepticism was warranted.
The FBI’s reporting was grossly incomplete because many jurisdictions were not reporting their crimes statistics to the FBI at all.
In 2021, the FBI had switched data collection systems to the National Incident-Based Reporting System from the older Summary Reporting System.
At the time of this change, more than 6,000 law enforcement agencies were missing from national crime data, which involved nearly a third of the United States’ 18,000 police agencies.
Some of the largest police departments had not submitted, including the NYPD and the LAPD.
Both California and Florida had not been certified in time for this changeover, were initially left out, and have only been reporting piecemeal since 2021.
The FBI wrongly reported that crime was down despite missing large sets of data across multiple states.
In 2024, the FBI finally revised their data, saying that instead of a decrease, violent crime went up by 4.5 percent in 2022, representing thousands more murders, rapes, and assaults.
But is this still the whole picture?
No.
The FBI still does not have perfect data as law enforcement self-reporting is still incomplete, and even among the data they do receive, they don’t report everything that is sent their way.
Turning to the topic of defensive gun use, this loose, fast, and incomplete intake process also plagues how they report on bad guys being stopped with a gun.
Dr. John R. Lott Jr. of the Crime Prevention Research Center has found that the FBI selectively and incompletely reports on defensive gun use when they publish their crime statistics.
The FBI does this hiding first in how they frame their “active shooter” and “mass killing” definitions.
The FBI defines an “active shooter” as “one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area” and, a “mass killing,” as “three or more killings in a single incident.”
If someone stops an active shooter before the perpetrator gets off a shot, the FBI does not include them in their “stopping an active shooter” reporting because there were not enough people killed to meet the definition even though the defensive act was stopping a would-be active shooter.
The FBI also does not delineate between “gun-free zones” and places where people can legally carry.
So, when the FBI reports a percentage to make it seem like defensive use is rare, they hide the fact that private citizens are disarmed in some places by legal decree, making the defensive use of a gun not possible for law-abiding citizens.
When defensive gun use comparisons are made solely where people can legally carry, Dr. Lott Jr. notes that the number of active shootings stopped between 2014 and 2021 is above 50%, and over 63 percent in 2022 alone.
The FBI has also left out many defensive cases over the years, even where there is independent news coverage that Dr. Lott Jr. has brought to their attention.
By-and-large, when he brings these cases to the FBI’s attention, they just hand-wave it away, either by ignoring him or claiming it doesn’t fall into their definition even though the FBI, at times, includes other similar cases.
With these limited definitions and a lack of complete data, the FBI makes it seem as if defensive gun use cases are rarer than they are.
The FBI reports a 4.6 percent successful defensive use rate while Dr. Lott Jr. finds at least a 35 percent rate overall.
Of course, if more places respected the right to keep and bear arms, we’d see more defensive gun use cases and more success stories as we do anywhere else that people have their second amendment rights supported.
So, the next time someone tries to tell you that defensive gun use is rare, ask them if they’re relying on the FBI’s framing narrative.
Then tell them to really investigate how the FBI collects and reports on their data.
The more people understand what the FBI is leaving out, the more they can recognize the importance of gun rights and self-defense.
Sources
MISSING DATA:
4 Reasons We Should Worry About Missing Crime Data
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/07/13/fbi-crime-rates-data-gap-nibrs
One-Fourth Of Population Missing From FBI Crime Data Last Year
https://www.ncja.org/crimeandjusticenews/one-fourth-of-population-missing-from-fbi-crime-data-last-year
Bad data from the FBI mislead about crime
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/fairness-justice/2953562/bad-data-from-the-fbi-mislead-about-crime/
Stealth Edit: FBI Quietly Revises Violent Crime Stats
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/10/16/stealth_edit_fbi_quietly_revises_violent_crime_stats_1065396.html
Estimation Procedures for Crimes in the United States Based on NIBRS Data
https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/estimation-procedures-crimes-united-states-based-nibrs-data
GUN DATA MANIPULATION
How to stop another Uvalde Massacre and Other Mass Public Shoo9ngs from Occurring
https://crimeresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/How-to-stop-another-Uvalde-Massacre-from-Occurring-4.pdf
John Lott Opinion: FBI Data on Active Shootings is Misleading
https://floridadaily.com/john-lott-opinion-fbi-data-on-active-shootings-is-misleading/
FBI Underreports Defensive Gun Use to Congress
https://www.firearmsnews.com/editorial/fbi-underreport-defense-gun-congress-testimony/467858
Government Continues to Downplay, Distort Data on Defensive Gun Use
https://www.nraila.org/articles/20230911/government-continues-to-downplay-distort-data-on-defensive-gun-use
The FBI and Media Don’t Tell You How Many Lives Guns SAVE
FBI Releases 2023 Active Shooter Incidents in the United States Report
https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-2023-active-shooter-incidents-in-the-united-states-report
#selfdefense #gunrights #libertarian #ancap #fbi #guns #gun #fpc #goa #defensedistributed #abolishthefbi #alexjones
Sending Love and Ecency Curation Vote!
Follow Eceny's curation trail to earn better APR on your own HP. : )
Weaving a narrative and manipulating minds. They won't stop until they get everyone saying "we don't need guns" and "only authorities need weapons". Fantastic reporting. !BBH
@thepholosopher! @ironshield likes your content! so I just sent 1 BBH to your account on behalf of @ironshield. (43/100)
(html comment removed:
)