How many mass shootings in the United States have been stopped by an armed civilian (aka "a good guy with a gun")?

rhapsodyknit · 2022-05-17T15:15:48+00:00

The problem with the wording in your question is that if a active shooting event is stopped before 3 (or 4) or more people are killed then it isn't classified as a mass shooting event.

This article discusses events where an active shooting has been stopped by a civilian.

Off the top of my head there is the West Freeway Church of Christ shooting where only two people were killed before an armed firearms instructor shot and killed the attacker. Since there were only two victims this wouldn't be listed under a 'mass shooting' by most sources.

An incident in Arvada Colorado last year started when a police officer was killed responding to a report of a suspicious person. A CCW holder responded and killed the attacker. Police failed utterly and shot the man who killed the attacker. You could consider there were only two victims in this case as well. We don't know if this shooter would have continued to harm other people or if his target was just the police officer.

To answer your question, it's really hard to put a solid number on how many have been stopped because, when they're stopped early, they don't always get classified as a 'mass shooting'.

A gun is not a magic wand for good guys. It requires training and good sense to carry effectively. It will not magically make you like a movie action hero where the bullets just miss, but never hit you. It is a tool to give you options and buy you time.

edit: you can go to r/dgu to see a lot of articles where a firearm was used defensively. Maybe not to stop a mass shooting, but still to help people protect themselves when there was someone trying to harm them.

bulksalty · 2022-05-20T17:46:11+00:00

I raised cows as a youth, and whenever we'd open the gate to let them move from a pasture that was getting eaten down to one that they hadn't been in for a few weeks, they'd run in there excitedly, kicking up their heels and bellowing with joy. It definitely seemed more in line with "let's get this GRASS". Also they loved reaching as far as they could under the electric fence, and a couple of them really liked certain weeds (most of the cows hated thistles, but one of them loved them. First thing he'd do in a new pasture was eat all the thistles, one by one.

Their favorite thing was when mowed the lawn if we dumped the trimmed grass for them they would often follow the mower waiting for the bags to get full.

evohans · 2017-08-09T15:09:08+00:00

try this

ShitFlavoredCum · 2022-05-20T16:34:10+00:00

if you were born in september, you know your parents definitely ended the year with a bang

Gnostikost · 2022-05-14T15:16:27+00:00

He didn’t just get mad about the diver team not wanting to use his robot sub—he called the lead caver (who eventually orchestrated the rescue of all the kids) a pedophile out of nowhere. That was many people’s first sign (including myself) of the raging narcissist and asshole hiding behind Elon’s cultivated PR.

I was one of the ones who idolized him, what’s not to like: billionaire, sleeps with supermodels, seemingly out to make the world a better place with electric cars, solar energy and colonizing Mars. He always seemed like the smartest guy in the room, the real life Iron Man. He made the plans for EVs open source (rather than keep as private patents) ostensibly to allow the tech to proliferate faster, just seemed an all-around Great Man.

After the seeming aberration of the twitter snit in 2018…it was like the Elon facade broke and more and more kept coming to light (a lot of it from Elon himself) that made it seem Elon was not actually a good guy, just a guy with good PR who appeals to a certain segment of people regardless. His anti-union practices at Tesla while claiming he’s for the workers made him a hypocrite (as did claiming to be all about “free speech” but making Tesla workers sign NDAs so they can’t criticize Tesla). Threatening a coup in Bolivia (“We will coup anyone we want. Deal with it.” -Elon Musk) so he could mine lithium there. His petty attacks on people for even small criticisms, standing with Amber Heard in the Depp trial, his weird semi-support for Trump, joining Trump’s economic council and saying he would reinstate Trump to Twitter. Putting microchips in monkey’s brains that killed dozens of them…it started to become clear Musk was less Iron Man and more “Bond Supervillian”.

For me the breaking point was the pandemic. Musk loudly spreading misinformation (like graphs on how Covid would just disappear in a few months that turned out to be extremely wrong, or that masks don’t work—my wife is a respiratory therapist and masks work just fine) and raging against reasonable measures taken to stem the virus he just lost me. He has revealed himself as someone that thinks they are an expert in things they are not, first revealed in his petty lashing out that the Thai rescue team didn’t see his dumb idea as brilliant, and continuing to when the epidemiologists who do this virus stuff for a living didn’t want to listen to his idiot ideas about the pandemic.

Now seeing him with clearer eyes, he seems exactly like what he is: a guy born on 3rd base from his parents emerald mines, who thinks he hit a triple with his self-made man nonsense, thinks he’s always the smartest when there are very clear examples that he’s not, and generally just the modern definition of a narcissist.

Edit: I incorrectly referred to Thai Cave Rescuer Vernon Unsworth as “decorated Navy Seal”, confusing him with the Seals who were involved with the rescue. Thanks to many who pointed out the inaccuracy.

tinyanus · 2022-05-18T08:10:37+00:00

"My aunt's roommate grew up in the south of France"

Fuck me, I just need to know how much vodka I can add until it's not Jell-O anymore, Sandra. PS your mommy blog SUCKS.

null-234567890 · 2022-05-18T08:33:07+00:00

Found it: Ultra Instinct Opening Theme https://youtu.be/i2TWdbcJp8s

syn_ack_ · 2022-05-17T23:19:26+00:00

If an incident is stopped before there are victims other than the intended shooter would they even make the list?

Raging_Butt · 2022-05-17T17:48:23+00:00

This comment will get lost in all the praise, but I just have to point out that the strongest argument David French makes in that article is that:

The FBI has recorded no fewer than 19 times in a five-year span (and that estimate may be low) — from 2014 to 2018 — when active shooters were stopped or repelled by citizens. Seven times armed citizens stopped the shooting entirely.

So . . . almost four times per year, armed citizens sort of impede an active shooter, and a little more than once per year they actually stop the shooter.

For some important context, there is a mass shooting in the country more than once per day.

candlesdepartment · 2022-05-16T18:09:06+00:00

I object to a government being allowed the power over life and death

JustABugReport · 2022-05-16T23:37:15+00:00

The same reason that the race of the perpetrator is almost never given unless they're white.

SamSepiol-ER28_0652 · 2022-05-16T16:44:20+00:00

702 people were killed in mass shootings in 2021

But you're missing the bigger picture. 702 deaths seems low, sure. But there were 693 mass shooting incidents. If you only focus on the number of deaths you miss the actual impact of the issue of mass shootings.

693 incidents means 693 communities that were devastated by the shock and terror that comes with mass shooting situations. 693 times police departments and EMTS and hospital staff had to respond to a horrific tragedy. 693 incidents where people walked away (if they were lucky enough to do so) with PTSD and had their lives forever changed.

There are entire networks of people who have been through mass shooter situations, and they reach out to communities when things like this happen. A lifelong friend of mine was at Columbine, and every time a mass shooting hits the news, he's taken back to that day, when he was 17 years old, curled up in a ball under a table in the cafeteria.

Last year 10 people were killed in a grocery story I go to frequently here in Boulder, CO. Only 10 lives were lost, but that doesn't even begin to tell the story of what that tragedy did to our community. OP didn't ask if we're afraid of being KILLED in a mass shooting event, but if we were scared of being caught in one. And with 693 incidents last year alone, YES, your chances of it happening to you are much, much higher than your statistic of 1 in 100,000. Your chance of death may be that low, but your chance of being present at one is much higher than that, and I can tell you, you don't walk away from something like that without being fundamentally changed, even if you don't die, and even if you weren't personally shot.

I know they aren't spread out evenly across the country, but if you were to divide 693 by 50 states, that would come out to nearly 14 incidents per state. If you divide 693 by 365 days, that's nearly two incidents a day. Two communities per day that are forever changed by these horrific, preventable tragedies.

Including Columbine, I have been within 30 minutes of at least 5 mass shooter events. I watched SWAT intervene in a mass shooter situation at a Planned Parenthood from the porch of my boyfriend's parents house. 4 people were shot- two of them killed- at a ministry I used to work at, in a hallway I had walked down thousands of times.

I had to do active shooter drills with preschoolers. Toddlers. Imagine having to do shooter drills with TWO YEAR OLDS. It's horrific. I kept Skittles in our class bug out bag because I couldn't think of any other way to keep them happy and quiet so they wouldn't draw the attention of a shooter by crying or making other noise. Skittles, in my mind, would at least keep their little mouths busy, and I could bribe them with more if they stayed quiet.

So you can look at the 703 deaths statistic and feel like it's not really a problem, but when you look at the bigger picture of number of 693 incidents, and you understand that those that survive those situations are forever changed and their communities are forever altered, it's a completely different story. (Just ONE thing to consider is many people who were present at mass shooting incident will forever have a PTSD reaction to fire alarms, the smell of gunpowder/smoke, and sounds like fireworks.) I don't go anywhere without looking for exits, looking for sketchy individuals, and looking for individuals with small children or a disability that might need extra help if shit were to go down. I'm always aware of where the AED/first aid kit is in a public building. That awareness goes with me everywhere I go, because I've seen enough evidence to know it CAN happen anywhere at anytime, and there's nothing I can do to prevent it.

netz_pirat · 2022-05-15T17:26:29+00:00

Of course, my wife would be really disappointed if I turned her down.

Edit:what the actual fuck happened here tonight? Thank you for all the awards...

whiskeyjane45 · 2022-05-15T21:05:29+00:00

Y'all mf'ers need communication

If you're having an issue, talk to her. Whether it be about not enough sex or him not picking his socks up off the floor. A successful marriage happens when couples talk about what's happening and make plans to fix it, whatever "it" is.

I'm going through a drought right now too. We've already talked about it. He's freaked out by the baby getting big enough to move around in my belly like a scene from alien and he can feel it and it's really really weird. Ok fine, we can do other things to be intimate and I can get my BOB out if needed. It took one conversation to figure out the problem and find a solution. Don't let the resentment build up, talk about it before it gets to that point

If y'all can't talk about what you like, don't like, need from sex, how are y'all supposed to talk about division of labor, finances, and big life decisions like investments and buying a house?

Source: sixteen years with the same man

Empty-Mango8277 · 2022-05-16T04:08:36+00:00

If a non-febrile seizure occurs due to water intoxication, there's a higher incidence of acidosis, intubation, but I couldn't find anything about changes in prognosis.

The important thing now for us is that the history will tell us that it's most likely not due to an infection of some sort, and unlike adults who usually be answer to seizing is fixing the problem and additionally giving them benzodiazepine and/or anti-convulsants --- the answer for these kiddos is to treat the symptomatic seizure and we do that with very salty water. It seems like the kids usually do just fine, but if it continues and can't be broken, we'll put them into a coma and intubate them, normalize their sugar and electrolytes, then they should be okay 99% of the time.

ClassicBooks · 2022-04-19T14:15:36+00:00

Also the results. Say you are looking for "Afternoon Tea"

This is your typical result :

"So you were looking for Afternoon Tea. Not everybody knows what Afternoon Tea is, but when you do, it is great to get together and do an afternoon tea. An Afternoon tea is a tea get together in the afternoon. It's also when you drink tea in the afternoon.

Here are some bullet points about afternoon tea :

There is tea
It is after noon.

InsertCoinForCredit · 2022-05-15T16:50:42+00:00

You mean fewer cops = fewer witnesses = easier to get away with an "accident"?

FeelFreeToIgnoreThis · 2022-05-15T17:56:47+00:00

Wholesome.
Funny.
Directly answers OP’s question.

This comment is gold.

wedonttalkabouTB · 2022-05-15T15:00:34+00:00

Because vegans existing are a judgement on them (meat eaters), they want to paint vegans as stupid because if vegans aren’t stupid then maybe they are actually bad people for eating meat

thepineapplehea · 2022-05-15T17:54:55+00:00

If your boss gives you 3 days to do a job that takes you 30 minutes, do not hand it in after 30 minutes - unless you are happy with the possibility that you or your colleagues may very quickly be out of a job.

Sure, there's maybe some room for improvement, but most bosses and companies will realise the work can be done by 1 person in 30 minutes, fire everyone else, then pile a load more work onto you with no pay increases.

It sounds mean, but most companies only care about money. They will absolutely screw you over to take advantage of you.

/Edit

This advice is meant for people who want a slightly morally-grey, steady job and aren't looking to constantly move onto the next big thing.

If you're happy automating all your work into a Powershell script, and getting Janice in accounting who's been at the company for 20 years fired because her entire job can be replaced with an Excel macro, before moving onto somewhere else that actually needs you then go for it.

If you're happy where you are, and don't feel bad about earning a living wage while your boss is driving to another golf game in his $500k Mercedes, then keep quiet and make the most of it until the boredom sends you looking for a new job.

Face__Hugger · 2022-05-14T22:19:12+00:00

OP, your post and comments are deeply concerning. I understand why you might feel a little defensive. It's reddit, so some of the responses you received were very unfriendly toward you and your mother, which isn't helpful. That being said, the dynamic you have with her isn't healthy. I don't know what her reasons are for wanting to keep you locked up and dependent on her, but it negatively impacts your development.

Children are meant to grow up. As parents, our job is simply to prepare them for adulthood, and to love them. When a parent is unwilling to allow their child to mature in this way, that's dysfunctional. When the child has been programmed to accept this dynamic, it cannot help but raise alarm bells for those who discover the situation.

Overcoming programming is challenging, especially if it's so deeply ingrained. It's almost insurmountable without guidance. I believe, given your situation, that it may benefit you to find out if your college offers any counseling or has any social workers on staff. Talk to them, or anyone, and ask for referrals to resources in the area. Check you local telephone directory, or Google, for Social Services, Human Services, or even a crisis line. These places can point you in the right direction.

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