Are There Really No Black School Shooters?

As Dr. Helen writes, “Not according to Van Jones”:

[T]he Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality…states that only white kids shoot up suburban schools:

“You’ve never seen a Columbine done by a black child. Never. They always say, ‘We can’t believe it happened here. We can’t believe it’s these suburban white kids.’ It’s only them. Now, a black kid might shoot another black kid. He’s not going to shoot up the whole school.”

I guess Van Jones never heard of Nicholas Elliot. But I have. During my research for my book on school shootings, The Scarred Heart: Understanding and Identifying Kids Who Kill, I described Elliot’s case. He was a black sixteen year old male who attended a Christian Academy. He was quite shy and taunted and teased by classmates. On December 16, 1988, Nicholas came to school with a semiautomatic pistol and two hundred rounds of ammunition and entered a classroom. He opened fire, killing one teacher and wounding another. Luckily, his gun jammed before he could accomplish a bigger mass shooting. At his trial, the psychiatrist who evaluated Nicholas testified that was a “pressure cooker” who was unable to express his feelings and exploded after being tortured by classmates.

Maybe next time Jones opens his mouth, he should try to get his facts straight. But then, what can we expect from someone who thought 9/11 was an inside job?

And as Glenn Reynolds adds, there were also the infamous DC snipers from 2002.

How tenuous is Jones’ position right now? Found via Ace, CBS produced a surprisingly negative report about him. (At least surprising in that it’s coming from Walter, Dan and Katie’s network.)