You would never know Americans use guns four to five times more frequently to stop crime than to commit it, especially when entertainment TV portrays the opposite.
When an alleged armed robber barged into Ranchito #4 Taqueria on Jan. 4, almost every customer froze with fear. But one good Samaritan, an unnamed 46-year-old man, quickly jumped into action to protect himself and his fellow patrons. He used a concealed gun to shoot the alleged perpetrator and returned the stolen cash to the terrified patrons, only later to discover that the firearm the alleged robber used was a fake.
Despite the customer's heroic actions, he has received nothing but condemnation from corporate media after the alleged thief was declared dead on the scene. Unfortunately, this media treatment is nothing new. Over the past few years, only a few good Samaritans have received any press despite the overwhelming number of these brave individuals jumping into action.
In December, for example, a man stopped an active shooter at an Amazon warehouse parking lot in the Phoenix, Arizona area. The police called the man a โgood Samaritanโ and credit him with likely preventing further bloodshed. In another case later that month, an active shooter at a Tucson, Arizona bar threatened many people but was โstopped short by a heroic customer with a gun.โ
You may not hear about many of these stories outside of local media accounts, but they occurย all the time. There areย dozens of cases in recent yearsย in which concealed handgun permitholdersย stopped what, according to police, would have otherwise become mass public shootings.
These good Samaritans saving the day would make gripping stories, but we don't see much news on these cases. National entertainment television also fails to reveal the truth about these good Samaritans: For decades, ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox haveย refusedย to feature even a single successful defensive gun use by a civilian. You would never know Americans successfully use guns defensively on average approximatelyย 2 millionย times a year, or that they use guns four to five times more frequently to stop crime than to commit it.
Entertainment programs always show defensive gun usesย going wrongย (the sole exception in the last decade isย Paramount'sย โYellowstoneโ). Typically the citizen fails to defend himself and ends up murdered, accidentally shoots a loved one, or poses a danger to himself and the police. After theย Supreme Court decisionย this past June striking down New York's restrictions on concealed handguns, television shows have begun to demonize concealed-carry permits.
Here are just a few examples from the 2022-23 television season so far:
ABC's โThe Rookie,โ Jan. 3, 2023:ย Against the adamant advice of a police officer, a legally armed civilian intervenes in a bank robbery. Despite his good intentions, he only succeeds in getting himself and another civilian shot. To make matters worse, the armed civilian's intervention allows the bank robbers to escape. โLeave it to a good guy with a gun to really screw things up,โ remarks the police officer. Aboutย 4.5 millionย viewers saw that episode.
CBS's โFBI: Most Wanted,โ Nov. 22, 2022:ย After a criminal bashes a person's head with a rock in Central Park, a good Samaritan chases the criminal. The criminal shoots at the permit holder, who shoots back but misses and ends up severely wounding a female bystander. The FBI agent characterizes the permit holder as a โvigilante.โ When the permit holder tells an FBI agent the police need to do their job, the agent grabs the permit holder and exclaims: โWe are, but it only gets harder with idiots like you playing cops and robbers!โ More thanย 5.1 millionย people watched this episode.
NBC's โLaw & Order,โ Nov. 6, 2022:ย In this episode, a woman pulls her permitted concealed handgun out and mistakenly threatens to shoot two people who were police officers. The police almost end up shooting her in self-defense, proceeding to arrest her โfor pulling a gun on a cop.โ They explain that despite her permit, she doesn't know the rules for carrying guns and that she is โlucky to be alive.โ Aboutย 4 millionย people saw this show.
CBS's โBlue Bloods,โ Oct. 28, 2022:ย When robbers try to take a woman's $20,000 watch, she pulls out her permitted concealed handgun to protect herself. As a result, she is severely wounded by the robbers. Others who were robbed of their watches by the same criminals didn't have guns and weren't harmed. โGot the gun for protection โฆ so much for that,โ says the victim. Almostย 5.8 millionย people viewed this show.
NBC's โChicago PD,โ Oct. 5, 2022:ย At first, it appears a civilian has successfully defended himself against a robbery. Later, it becomes clear that the โgood Samaritanโ was actually the lookout who had turned on his robbery crew. Just shy ofย 6 millionย people saw this.
CBS's โFBI: Most Wanted,โ Sept. 20, 2022:ย This episode has two different examples of defensive gun uses failing. In the first, a family is murdered before the father is able to get off a shot. โSo much for a good guy with a gun,โ an FBI agent remarks dismissively. Aboutย 5.3 millionย people saw this episode.
Many other episodes display failed defensive gun uses, and these are just the ones involving people legally carrying outside their homes. None of this should be too surprising, as it is well-known that gun control groups areย workingย with Hollywood writers and producers to introduce gun control themes into shows.
My organization, the Crime Prevention Research Center, has found a total of 360 active-shooter incidents from 2014 to 2021. Of these, an armed citizenย stopped 124ย (more than one-third). We are more confident of the completeness of our data in the most recent years, and 49 percent of active shooting cases in 2021 were stopped by armed civilians.ย When we exclude shootings in gun-free zones, the figure rises to 58 percent.
In not one of these 124 defensive gun uses did a permit holder accidentally shoot a bystander. Not once did a permit holder get in the way of the police. But anyone who watches entertainment television would have no clue that this is the case.
People can't escape the political bias in television entertainment. The message from these shows is clear: Don't use guns for protection. If you do, it will cause much more harm than benefit. It is bad enough that news programs provide just one side of this debate. But the bias has a real effectย on the gun control debate and prevents Americans from doing what keeps them safe.
John R. Lott, Jr. is the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center.
This article originally appeared in The Federalist. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions ofย American Liberty News. Republished with permission.
10 Comments
Urge U examine these retro TV shows on Gun use:
Mod Squad
SWAT
Rockford Files
Mannix
The Wild Wild West
The Rookies
Police Story
Peter Gunn
Felony Squad
All on DVD or streaming
“Retro” being the key word.
For modern day TV shows, scratch “Retro” and insert “Woke”.
Paul – deliberately manipulating might be a better description.
Is there a difference between woke and manipulating?
ESAD to the “woke” shmucks!
Follywood is a farce just like TV with their punk criminal programs they show today.
More Good Guy Gun show/Movies:
Cobra, 1986
Rambo
A Team
Combat
Rat Patrol
U571
Tora Tora Tora
The Wild Bunch
McQ ( John Wayne)
The UnDefeated
Hawaii 5-0
TV shows and movies are
Follywood is typical Calipornia liars and will never grow up because they think they’re actually smarter than the rest of the country. Lib meccas are where most of these assaults take place. This clown move is ONLY another scam for a power grab.
Stuff ( Iโd like to say crap) like this is why I donโt watch police programs. I seen plenty of real police work in my 39yrs in law enforcement to know what is real vs TV hype.