Report: FBI and Hollywood Mislead Public on “Good Guy With a Gun” Stats

“Leave it to a good guy with a gun to really screw things up,” said a comely female cop on an episode of ABC’s The Rookie. This utterance was no accident. Nor was it simply inspired by Hollywood’s well-known left-wing bent. Rather, gun-control groups readily admit they work with screenwriters and producers to shape dialogue. One entity even brags about “its ‘partnership with Hollywood’ and how they’re ‘consulted on scripts,’” relates journalist John Stossel.

In reality, “good guys with a gun” will often thwart would-be mass murderers. We usually don’t hear about this from national media, though. The FBI sometimes doesn’t record such cases, either; they’re “missed” by the bureau. Why? Criminal-justice researcher John Lott, Jr. asked people at the FBI about this and got some interesting responses. “Well, I’m a Democrat,” was one of them.

All this and more are included in a new investigative report, released by the aforementioned Stossel, titled “The FBI and Media Don’t Tell You How Many Lives Guns SAVE.”

Truth in the Crosshairs

Stossel opens his report illustrating how entertainment and media use propaganda and cherry-picked “experts” to spread anti-firearm propaganda. He then points out that, understandably, mass shootings receive wall-to-wall news coverage. Crimes that likely would’ve become mass shootings but were thwarted by good citizens with guns, however, get ignored.

Consider: The horrid Pulse nightclub massacre in Florida in 2016 claimed 49 lives and, consequently, was huge national news. Yet just a week later a similar incident at a South Carolina nightclub was met mostly with crickets. The difference?

Just a few people were murdered before a “good guy with a gun” took down the shooter.

No, we don’t know how many the miscreant would’ve slaughtered if not stopped. What we do know:

He still had about 125 more rounds on him when he was thwarted.

Not a One-off

Another example occurred some months after the nation-rending 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida (which claimed 17 victims), when a man opened fire with a weapon at a Titusville, Fla., elementary school event. While hundreds were present, someone carrying a concealed firearm legally stopped the criminal before any innocents were killed. Don’t be surprised if your local news didn’t cover that, though — you’ve got plenty of company.

Oh, the FBI “missed” that incident, by the way.

The agency also missed the case of one Raul Mendez. In 2022, Arizona resident Mendez and his pregnant wife were at a party when some maniac opened fire. Despite being shot himself, he fired four rounds, neutralized the threat, and almost assuredly saved lives.

Stossel asked the FBI why the above cases and so many others were absent from their records. Their data is “not intended to explore all active shooter incidents,” they responded, “but rather to provide a baseline understanding.” Or, should it be “misunderstanding”? After all, will people get a clear picture of defensive gun use if pieces of the puzzle are omitted? Stossel’s report is below.

What About the Children?!

Other cases of successful defensive gun use occur all the time — and aren’t hard to find. Twelve are listed here. And, sometimes, the defender is a “good kid with a gun.”

Just consider the case of then-12-year-old Oklahoman Kendra St. Clair. Home alone in 2012, she used her mother’s 40-caliber Glock to shoot a 32-year-old home invader, causing him to flee. Kendra was left scared and crying, but unharmed.

Then there was a 2010 incident involving an 11-year-old Palmview, Texas, boy. At home with his mother, the lad faced off against two armed and masked illegal aliens who’d broken in. Despite being shot in the hip, the boy managed to return fire with a .22-caliber rifle. After one assailant was struck in the neck, both fled the scene.

Of course, if Kendra had been raped and killed or the boy tortured and murdered, the stories might’ve been big news. They also might’ve been if we had an honest media.

And perhaps the cases of kids’ defensive firearm use are buried because they reveal a truth. We hear much about “children being killed with guns,” even though those “children” are usually teen gang-bangers. But a firearm is known as a “great equalizer,” and it is never more so than with children. How else, realistically, can a young kid fend off a full-grown male criminal?

A Lot of Buck Without the Bang

Yet even if every incident involving guns fired in self-defense were reported and recorded properly, it wouldn’t tell the tale. The reason? Guns’ reputation precedes them.

Just consider the 2011 story of Albuquerque 11-year-old Alyssa Gutierrez. After three teenage burglars broke in to her home, merely grabbing her mother’s (pink!) rifle was enough to make them flee. Unusual?

Not according to criminologist Gary Kleck, who, do note, happens to be a Democrat and ACLU member. He once estimated that 2.5 million Americans each year use guns for self-defense. What’s more, as with Gutierrez, many of these cases involve would-be victims who deterred criminals merely by displaying a firearm. And, as he found, writes ThoughtCo, “Assault and robbery rates are lower when victims are armed with a gun.”

Leftists do acknowledge this obvious conclusion, too — tacitly. That is, if a good guy with a gun can’t be effective, then why do they worry about a bad guy with a gun? How is it that he could be any more effective? And if a bad guy with a gun could kill a good guy, why can’t a good guy with a gun kill the bad guy first?

Is every bad guy an über-skilled genius and every good guy an incompetent moron?

Lastly, consider the confessions heard during a 2013 hidden-video sting operation targeting pro-gun-control N.Y. journalists. When asked if they’d post a sign on their property stating “THIS HOME IS PROUDLY GUN FREE,” all balked. Explaining himself, one even said he was worried that it was “an invitation to somebody with a gun!”

Yeah, they all clearly believe that a “good guy with a gun” is no deterrent at all.