The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put defensive gun use figures back on their website, and that data shows upwards of 2.5 million such uses a year.
This information from the CDC is not new; rather, it is newly reposted. It was deleted in 2022, and Breitbart News pointed to a FOX News claim that the deletion occurred after the CDC was pressured by gun control activists.
But it is 2026, and the data is back on the CDC website on the “About Firearm Injury and Death” page.
Under the subtitle, “Defensive Gun Use,” the page says, “Estimates of defensive gun use vary depending on the questions asked, populations studied, timeframe, and other factors related to study design. The report Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence indicates a range of 60,000 to 2.5 million defensive gun uses each year.”
The gun control outlet The Trace is not happy about the return of the defensive gun use numbers, claiming the inclusion of the defensive gun use figures “reflects the Trump administration’s staunch Second Amendment advocacy, putting the president in lockstep with a gun lobby that’s long promoted the idea that a ‘good guy with a gun’ is the only thing that can stop a ‘bad guy with a gun.’”
The Trace then quotes the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) to try to bolster its claims, just as outlets that have claimed 600+ mass shootings in a year have leaned on GVA data as well.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. He is a lever action man in an AR-15 world. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
