Many people think that policy disagreements are like clothing style disagreements: there’s no right answer, it’s all personal preferences. Lazy people love this view, because it allows them to not have to read anything. I try to read 1 or 2 books on every policy topic, and that’s because I want to be able to persuade people to cote for the policies that I support. One of those areas is gun rights.

And there’s a new study from the Crime Prevention Research Center about gun policy, and it was written up in The Federalist.

It says:

In non-gun-free zones, where civilians are legally able to carry guns, concealed carry permit holders stopped 51.5 percent of active shootings, compared to 44.6 percent stopped by police, CPRC found in a deep dive into active shooter scenarios between 2014 and 2023.

Not only do permit holders succeed in stopping active shooters at a higher rate, but law enforcement officers face significantly greater risks when intervening. Our research found police were nearly six times more likely to be killed and 17 percent more likely to be wounded than armed civilians.

The article has a lot more interesting findings, for example, of the 180 total instances where an armed civilian stopped an active shooting, only one permit holders accidentally shot a bystander. But in the 156 cases stopped by law enforcement, police accidentally shot the wrong person in four cases, killing fellow officers twice and civilians twice.

And:

27 police were shot and killed while trying to stop an active shooter, a 7.7 percent rate, which is nearly six times higher than the rate for permit holders.

One hundred police were wounded, a 28.6 percent rate, compared to 24.4 percent for permit holders.

You might find this surprising, but in many of these big city police forces, they have a DEI appointee in charge, and all the hiring is governed by DEI. So, a lot of the time, it’s just people like the Secret Service agent who hid behind Trump when he was being shot at, or the one who couldn’t even re-holster her weapon without looking.

Anyway, let’s head over to the Daily Signal, and hear the latest defensive gun usages from Amy Swearer, who busies herself with these sorts of things.

She writes:

• Jan. 4, North Charleston, South Carolina: When a man saw his neighbor dragging a woman by her hair through the front yard of a nearby home, he called 911, then grabbed his handgun before successfully intervening to protect the woman without having to fire a shot. Police arrived and arrested the neighbor, who was “visibly intoxicated” and smelled of alcohol. He was charged with first-degree domestic violence.
• Jan. 9, Clarion, Pennsylvania: After a woman and her husband discovered a serial stalker had come to their home and parked in their driveway, one of the woman’s employees responded to their call for help and detained the stalker at gunpoint until police arrived. Police arrested the stalker, who they described as engaging in “an escalating pattern of concerning behavior” over the last two years. He’d been released on bail just 17 days earlier after a different stalking incident involving the same victims.
• Jan. 11, Brooklyn, New York: A concealed carry permit holder fatally shot a man who tried to rob him at knifepoint in a park. The robber allegedly put the victim in a chokehold and held a knife to his neck while demanding all of his money, but the permit holder drew his gun and shot his assailant. Police said the permit holder is unlikely to face criminal charges.
• Jan. 15, San Antonio, Texas: When an apartment complex manager and two maintenance workers confronted a suspicious man who’d been peering into residents’ vehicles, the man “became hostile” and physically assaulted them. A resident then tried to intervene, but the man pulled out a knife and a taser. The resident responded by drawing a handgun, causing the man to flee. The resident chased him in a “brief pursuit” before the man turned around and “postur[ed] like he was about to stab or attack the resident,” at which point the resident shot and wounded him.
• Jan. 26, Kansas City, Missouri: A knife-wielding man entered a convenience store, jumped over the counter, and tried to stab the manager. The manager, however, drew a gun and shot the attacker, wounding him. A bystander in the store was also armed and “stood guard” over several customers (including an 8-year-old) who barricaded themselves in a back room during the assault. The injured suspect was charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. The 8-year-old’s father, meanwhile, told reporters that he believed the armed intervention saved their lives.

I think it’s important for every American to be able to explain both the studies AND the examples of defensive gun usage by concealed carry permit holders to people who don’t understand why lab-abiding people should be allowed to own guns. It’s not enough to have your one vote, you have the duty to convince other people to vote for the right policies.