Gunnut Claim ruled FALSE by politifact [View all]

FALSE: New Hampshire Republican Jim Rubens says armed civilians drastically reduce casualties during mass shootings ... Says when armed civilians stop mass shootings with guns, an average of 2.5 people die; otherwise, an average of 18 people die. (I think/glean that Rubens is in the GOP primary with scott brown to run for senator).

Refutal: ..an academic study published in an FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin by Dr. Pete Blair, dir of research Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center (ALERRT) and assoc prof criminal justice Texas State Uni...

Blair and two other researchers examined more than 100 shootings between 2000 and 2012, investigating factors such as average response time of law enforcement and outcomes based on the actions taken by civilians at the scene... the study found the median number of people shot is 5 (excluding the perpetrator).
.. Blair said it’s logical to assume casualties would be lower when civilians intervene before police arrive, but his research documented very few incidents that were actually stopped because a civilian was carrying a gun..... Blair said he found only three cases in which an armed civilian shot the attacker, and in two of those incidents, the civilian who took action was an off-duty police officer.

Roughly half of all active shooter events Blair studied ended before law enforcement officers arrived. The most common occurrence was that the shooter stopped the attack spontaneously on their own. .. When those who remained either ran away or barricaded themselves, shooters often made the decision to leave the attack site or commit suicide..

Blair said he also documented cases in which civilians took direct action. Civilians stopped about one out of every six active shooter events, but their actions rarely involved the use of firearms.. The most common method was tackling the attacker, as was the case during a campus shooting in Seattle this week.

Blair said it would be difficult to draw any conclusions about the effectiveness of armed civilians in stopping active shooter events based on the limited data that exists. In general though, Blair said, fewer people were killed or injured in the events that ended before police showed up at the scene -- either because {UNARMED} civilians took action, or because the shooter spontaneously stopped or committed suicide. http://www.politifact.com/new-hampshire/statements/2014/jun/06/jim-rubens/jim-rubens-says-when-armed-civilians-stop-mass-sho/

Another canard from the 2nd Amendment Mythology Bible, bites the dust.