MK3 BLOG

Recent findings reveal that the FBI's claim that only 3.7 percent of active shooters are stopped by law-abiding gun owners is entirely false.

The FBI failed to properly record instances where law-abiding citizens stopped violent shooters, leading to false reports that "good guys with guns" have no effect on stopping violent criminals, according to the Crime Prevention Research Center.

The FBI's data, which claimed that only 14 of 374 active shooters were stopped by armed citizens between 2014 and 2024, undercounted shootings by a staggering 561 incidents. When those excluded cases are applied to the dataset, it reveals more than 202 instances where law-abiding gun owners stopped an active shooter.

This updated dataset takes the FBI's original statistic—which claims only 3.7 percent of active shooters were stopped by armed citizens—and raises the real number to 36 percent. If "gun-free zones," a misguided policy that assumes criminals will obey a metal sign, are excluded from the data, over 52 percent of active shooters are stopped by law-abiding gun owners.

Cooking the Books or Just Plain Old Incompetence?

The large disparity between the Crime Prevention Research Center's data and the FBI's statistics raises major concerns, as accurate information is essential for shaping policy and providing a true picture of gun ownership in America.

After all, gun control remains a central issue in many political races, and the policies implemented directly affect the Second Amendment rights of everyday Americans.

"The cascading effect is incredibly deleterious," said former U.S. Justice Department official Theo Wold. "When the Bureau gets it so systematically wrong, it shapes the entire national debate."

So why is there such a large disparity?

Alongside the 561 omitted incidents and the inclusion of "gun free" zones, the report found the FBI mislabeled numerous events, and in many cases, simply listed civilians as "security guards." 

For example, the FBI had classified the 2019 church shooting in White Settlement, Texas—where a parishioner shot and killed the gunman—as an incident where the shooter was apprehended by a security guard.

The Crime Prevention Research Center further noted that the FBI excluded some cases it labels "domestic disputes" or "retaliation murders" from its data about civilians stopping active shooters. The group also found that armed bystanders who thwarted attacks were not counted if the suspect fled the scene.

Shaping the Narrative with Bad Data

A simple Google search about active shooters being stopped by law-abiding gun owners brings up numerous studies claiming to “debunk” the idea that honest citizens can play a role in protecting society—but the real data shows they are completely wrong.

These studies, funded by "progressive" donorsand promoted by gun control groups, also ignore evidence showing that gun control has little to no effect on criminals. Instead, it creates an environment that restricts responsible citizens while giving violent criminals an easier playing field.

In recent years, the Left has weaponized fear about firearms to mobilize concerned voters. Regardless of the real data, it is imperative that they control the narrative while they push towards total disarmament—or as they tell everyone "gun violence' prevention.

Alongside "progressive" studies, mainstream media outlets continue to label the "good guy" as an uncommon occurrence.

Headlines show this framing: 

• "Rare in US for an active shooter to be stopped by bystander" (Associated Press); 
• "Rampage in Indiana a rare instance of armed civilian ending mass shooting" (Washington Post); 
• and "After Indiana mall shooting, one hero but no lasting solution to gun violence" (New York Times).

Only You Can Prevent Active Shooters

Policies such as "gun-free zones" assign blame to the firearm itself rather than the individual responsible for pulling the trigger. These policies create defenseless environments, allowing large groups of citizens to gather without any means of protection—and voters know this.

According to a 2022 Trafalgar Group poll, 42 percent of voters said that armed citizens were the best defense against mass shootings, while only 25 percent said it was local police. 

The Crime Prevention Research Center study confirms that such areas are prime targets for active shooters. Recall that excluding "gun-free zones" from the data raises successful defensive action by gun owners from 36 percent to 52 percent.

Other forms of gun control—such as purchasing restrictions, background checks, and magazine capacity limits—also place a heavier burden on law-abiding gun owners, as the FBI’s own data confirms that criminals do not obtain firearms legally.

A 2019 FBI study showed that only seven percent of crimes committed with a firearm involved legally purchased guns. Half of all offenders had stolen the firearm, while 43 percent had purchased it from underground or black-market vendors.

The results of gun control leave law-abiding citizens open to senseless violence, but they also turn our schools into major targets. Allowing teachers to carry firearms adds a layer of rapid protection that children deserve. 

The FBI reports that most active threat events—including mass shootings—are over within five minutes. Yet it takes law enforcement betweenfive and 10 minutes (at best) to respond to a shooting. 

The situation is even more dire for rural schoolsthat could be left stranded for over 20 minutes waiting for police response. 

Honorable, well-trained, law-abiding teachers can effectively fill that gap and save countless lives—but it's important that Americans know the true statistics if protective policies are going to be implemented.

Holding the FBI Accountable

The FBI should be a trusted source of information, but time and time again the data it presents to the public fails to reflect the reality of what is truly happening in the United States.

In 2024, Restoration News conducted a deep dive into crime across the country and found that the FBI had severely underreported the surging crime wave—even making it appear as though crime was trending downward. States like California, Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Virginiasaw major increases in murder, violent assault, and human trafficking between 2019 and 2023—but the FBI said all was well.

MK3|Sept 14,2025

Every few months, it happens.

Your feed floods with hashtags, slogans, and profile-picture filters. Corporations suddenly have something to say. Politicians scramble to issue statements. Your friends quietly judge you if you don’t join in.

And like clockwork, we’re all asked the same question: Are you for it, or against it?

That’s The Current Thing.

Every few months, the world demands you care about something. A hashtag. A war. A protest. A slogan. Silence isn’t neutral — it’s suspicious.

What Exactly Is The Current Thing?

The Current Thing isn’t just the latest headline. It’s a loyalty test.

It’s the issue that hijacks the conversation, forces people into binary camps, and turns politics into a game of allegiance.

Here’s the recipe:

• A trigger event — a war, a pandemic, a viral video, a protest.

• Media framing — simplified into “good guys vs. bad guys.”

• Symbols and slogans — hashtags, flags, emojis, profile filters.

• Social pressure — silence suddenly equals complicity.

• Institutional bandwagon — corporations, governments, and NGOs line up.

• Peak saturation — it’s everywhere, all the time.

• The drop-off — it fades, replaced by the next thing.

By the time people stop arguing, you’re already onto the next Current Thing.

Why Do Current Things Matter?

They aren’t random — they’re how modern politics works.

• They give people identity badges. Display the right emoji, wear the right pin, and everyone knows which tribe you belong to.

• They offer moral clarity. Forget nuance — this is good vs. evil, right vs. wrong.

• They act as elite coordination tools. Governments, media, and corporations all get to signal they’re “on the right side.”

• And yes, they can be distractions.

While everyone fights over flags in their bios, bigger, slower issues — like rights being restricted or mass surveillance — slide under the radar.

The Ugly Side of the Current Thing

The problem isn’t that people care. It’s that the care is shallow, manic, and disposable.

• Hashtags don’t fix broken systems.

• Binary framing crushes complexity.

• Yesterday’s “moral emergency” is today’s forgotten headline.

Yesterday’s “moral emergency” is today’s forgotten headline. The victims remain. The policies stay. The crowd moves on.

Meanwhile, as Noam Chomsky pointed out decades ago, the media doesn’t just tell us what to think — it tells us what it’s acceptable to think about.

And corporations have learned to exploit this. They swap their logos during Pride Month, pledge solidarity during protests, or change colors for the flag of the moment. Then, once the spotlight fades, so does their commitment.

Corporations swap their logos during Pride Month, pledge solidarity during protests — then go silent once the spotlight moves on. Marketing masquerading as morality.

Some Examples You’ll Remember

• COVID-19: Masks and vaccines weren’t just health issues; they became political purity tests.

• George Floyd / BLM: Corporate logos went black, fists went up, and protest slogans were suddenly everywhere.

• Ukraine (2022): The blue-and-yellow flag emoji became unavoidable, as Western governments and companies pledged loyalty.

• Israel–Gaza (2023–2025): Competing Current Things (#StandWithIsrael vs. #FreePalestine) split publics down the middle.

• Meanwhile… Yemen, Congo, Sudan? Crickets. Some crises just never qualify as The Current Thing.

And it’s not only foreign policy. Think of the Flint water crisis or the opioid epidemic. Both were once national scandals. Both were described as urgent emergencies. And yet, both faded from public attention long before solutions were reached. That’s how the memory hole works.

Why You Should Care About The Current Thing (Even If You’re Sick of It)

You might think: so what? People always follow trends.

But here’s the kicker: Current Things aren’t just trends — they’re tools.

They show us:

• Who has the power to set the agenda. Why Ukraine, but not Yemen? Why Gaza now, but Congo never?

• How shallow engagement warps democracy. Politics gets reduced to virtue-signaling instead of real policy.

• How attention itself has become currency. If we’re always reacting to the Current Thing, who’s doing the long-term thinking?

If we’re always reacting to the Current Thing, who’s doing the long-term thinking?

A Historical Reminder

The Current Thing has always existed — what’s new is the speed.

• During World War II, Pearl Harbor transformed American opinion overnight.

• In the 1950s, McCarthyism forced Americans to prove their loyalty or risk ruin.

• In the 1960s and ’70s, Vietnam War protests dominated public life, splitting the country into hawks and doves.

Back then, it took weeks or months for public opinion to coalesce. Today, it happens in hours — because social media compresses outrage into viral bursts.

Final Thought

The phenomenon of The Current Thing is not trivial. It reflects how collective attention is orchestrated, how political identities are formed, and how moral clarity is manufactured in a media-saturated society.

While Current Things can mobilize the masses and bring urgent issues into focus, they also risk superficiality, polarization, and distraction from structural change. In the networked age, where attention is currency, politics is increasingly governed by spectacles of the moment.

The challenge for democratic societies is to find ways to engage beyond the Current Thing — to cultivate deeper deliberation, longer-term commitment, and more nuanced debate. Otherwise, we risk a politics permanently trapped in cycles of outrage and amnesia.

The Bezmenov Angle

If you want a deeper understanding of how these cycles work, a good place to start is with Yuri Bezmenov’s warnings about “ideological subversion.”

His four stages — demoralization, destabilization, crisis, normalization — describe exactly how societies can be manipulated. In many ways, Current Things are the perfect vehicles for this process:

• They demoralize by overwhelming people with outrage.

• They destabilize by polarizing groups.

• They create a sense of crisis that demands instant response.

• They normalize the new status quo once attention moves on.

Demoralization. Destabilization. Crisis. Normalization. Current Things are the perfect vehicles for ideological subversion.

Reader Challenge

When the next Current Thing hits, don’t just ask what it is. Ask:

• Who benefits?

• Who is ignored?

• What’s being buried while the spotlight shines here?

Because the spectacle will pass. The only question is: what will you remember when it does?

--Context for blog post--

What are the odds the patsy taking the fall for the Charlie Kirk incident just so happens to have a transgender partner?

What are the odds the very last question Kirk was asked before being "unalived" was on tranny mass shooters in America?

Last month it was Minneapolis, this month Salt Lake City, both incidents involving tranny's in the narrative.

Do you see the pattern here?

What came from the Minneapolis PsyOp?

AI predictive policing and more reason for "personalized medicine."

Aside from the other telling signs and the obvious division this is causing (by design) this event will also justify both AI predictive policing (Palantir) and AI personalized medicine (Project Stargate) into the minds of the feeble masses – and yes even those who claim to be "awake."

I could be wrong (I want to be) but I haven't been so far...

While the public is distracted with headlines and culture wars, a series of quiet but decisive moves are reshaping the United States. The Epstein files remain sealed. Boycotting Israel is on the edge of becoming a federal offense. The economy is staggering under the weight of debt, inflation, and upward wealth transfer. And perhaps most dangerously, the meaning of words — particularly Nazi — is being bent and retooled to serve a new political purpose.

 This isn’t paranoia. It’s a pattern. And unless more people recognize it, America is being maneuvered into a future where surveillance, censorship, and control are normalized — all under the guise of “protecting democracy.”

 Epstein and the Politics of Secrecy

 The Epstein scandal should have been a moment of reckoning. Instead, it became another lesson in how effectively power protects itself. Despite endless speculation, only fragments of his network have ever been revealed. Now, by congressional maneuvering and judicial stonewalling, the remaining files are effectively locked away.

 The official line is that disclosure would harm “national security” or unfairly implicate the innocent. In reality, it keeps the machinery intact. Transparency here would topple too many pillars — political, financial, and cultural. And so, secrecy wins.

 Criminalizing Boycotts

 At the same time, legislation across multiple states and at the federal level has taken direct aim at boycotts of Israel. These “anti-BDS” measures do more than target one political movement; they carve a hole in the First Amendment.

 If political and economic boycotts — historically one of the most powerful nonviolent tools of American citizens — can be criminalized because they run counter to foreign policy, then the very concept of protected speech is hollow. It would mean Washington has the power to dictate not only what you can say, but what you can buy, sell, or refuse to purchase.

 That isn’t democracy. It’s policy enforcement by coercion.

 The Economy: Bleeding Out in Real Time

 Meanwhile, the economic reality for most Americans is grim. Inflation continues to devour wages. Debt has ballooned to historic levels. Servicing the interest alone now threatens to overwhelm the federal budget.

 On the ground, the middle and working classes are being hollowed out. Housing, food, fuel, and taxes consume nearly all disposable income. Whether the unraveling is intentional — a controlled demolition — or simply the consequence of decades of negligence doesn’t matter. The effect is the same: Americans are being stripped bare before the next phase of restructuring.

 Language as a Weapon: Redefining “Nazi”

 But perhaps the most insidious shift is linguistic.

 The word Nazi once referred specifically to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. Over time, it became shorthand for authoritarianism, fascism, and absolute evil. Today, however, the term is increasingly untethered from history.

 There is a growing effort to flip the definition, recasting “Nazi” as a form of left-wing extremism. This linguistic sleight of hand serves a strategic purpose. Once established, it allows lawmakers and media alike to:

•  Label dissenters, populists, and gun owners as “Nazis.”

•  Justify mass surveillance, censorship, and unconstitutional laws under the banner of “fighting Nazism.”

•  Package authoritarianism itself as a moral crusade.

 It’s the same move that followed 9/11 with the word terrorist: stretch the label until it covers anyone the state wishes to target.

 Surveillance by Consent

 The groundwork for this has already been laid. Over the last decade, cancel culture and online witch hunts normalized the idea of punishing people for speech. Every time someone lost a job over a tweet, the precedent grew stronger: free expression is conditional, subject to the whims of outrage.By cheering on these purges, society gave implicit consent for mass surveillance. Neighbors snitched on neighbors. Employers policed thoughts as much as behavior. 

And the state — always watching — realized it could do the same on a national scale.

 What Comes Next

 So where does this leave us?

•  Litigation: Fighting through the courts is slow, costly, and rarely victorious. The system is designed to exhaust challengers.

•  Preparation: Building parallel networks, decentralized communication, and legal defense strategies is more practical than waiting for the system to correct itself.

•  Recognition: Most Americans won’t understand the magnitude of what’s happening until it’s irreversible. Those who do see it now have to prepare outside the herd.

 The Hard Truth

 The most bitter pill is this: those who eagerly participated in silencing others, enforcing conformity, and cheering on surveillance will never fully grasp the damage they enabled. They were useful to the machine, and once their role is complete, they’ll be discarded like everyone else.

 The few who recognize the game have a choice: adapt now, or be consumed in the reset.