Under the Biden administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly removed data about the defensive use of firearms from its website. Those statistics are now being restored.
Various studies show that guns are used in self-defense between 60,000 and 2.5 million times each year. Even the low end of that range dwarfs the number of guns used in murders each year (approximately 15,000) and approaches or exceeds the total number of gun deaths per year (around 44,000, according to the Pew Research Center, a figure that includes suicides). The wide range of estimates comes from different methodologies and data sources. The lower figures often draw on the National Crime Victimization Survey, while the higher end primarily stems from surveys conducted by criminologist Gary Kleck in the early 1990s. A 2013 National Academies of Sciences report commissioned by the CDC itself referenced this range of 60,000 to 2.5 million defensive gun uses annually.
Gun-Control Advocates Wanted the Number Gone
In 2022, under pressure from anti-gun groups including, the Gun Violence Archive, Newtown Action Alliance, and GVPedia, in a private meeting, the CDC scrubbed its website of this defensive gun use information. A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request later revealed that the removal was purely political. According to emails obtained by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and others, these groups argued the estimates had created a roadblock to enacting further restrictions on the Second Amendment.
“[T]hat 2.5 million number needs to be killed, buried, dug up, killed again and buried again,” Mark Bryant, executive director of the Gun Violence Archive, wrote to the CDC in one of the emails. “It is highly misleading, is used out of context, and I honestly believe it has zero value — even as an outlier point in honest DGU discussions.”
According to the emails reported by The Reload, Bryant and his allies focused their objections on the high-end estimate, claiming it was repeatedly “debunked” without giving evidence and was being used as a “blunt instrument” against gun control legislation. They contended that as long as the figure remained associated with the CDC, it hindered policy efforts.
Former Associate Director for Policy, Partnerships, and Strategic Communication at the CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention Beth Reimels was open to modifying the data to satisfy the Gun Violence Archive’s request. Neither she nor anyone else at the CDC appears to have reached out to researchers who conducted studies that support higher estimates of defensive gun use for balance.
“We are planning to update the fact sheet in early 2022 after the release of some new data,” Reimels wrote in a subsequent email to Bryant. “We will also make some edits to the content we discussed that I think will address the concerns you and other partners have raised.”
The agency ultimately removed the specific numerical range and the link to its own review of the research. Officials later claimed the wide variability made the numbers confusing or potentially outdated, yet the change followed months of one-sided lobbying rather than any new comprehensive study. Critics noted that the CDC did not consult defenders of the data or announce the edit transparently at the time. The result was a public-facing presentation of firearm statistics that emphasized harms while omitting substantial evidence of benefits.
Restoring the Complete Picture
This episode illustrated how the presentation of institutional data can be shaped by advocacy rather than by pure science. Defensive gun use data matters because it provides context for the broader debate over firearms policy. When only criminal misuse and suicide statistics are highlighted, the full picture of civilian firearm ownership, including its role in deterring or stopping crime, is obscured.
Law-abiding citizens who use guns to protect themselves, their families, or others rarely make headlines in the same way mass shootings do, yet the cumulative numbers are significant by any measure within the documented range.
Now, under the direction of President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the CDC is returning the statistics to its firearm injury and death page. The restored language again notes that estimates of defensive gun use vary by study design and cites the range of 60,000 to 2.5 million each year, referencing the National Academies report.
This change marks a welcome pivot after years in which the CDC appeared responsive primarily to gun control advocates. Restoring the data does not settle every methodological dispute, but it returns publicly funded information to a more complete and balanced presentation.
About John Crump
Mr. Crump is an NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people from all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons, follow him on X at @right2bear, or at www.crumpy.com.
