What Percent of Mass Public Shooters are White Supremacists?
The news media and entertainment television keep pushing the notion that most mass public shootings are done by white supremacists. Who is a white supremacist is actually fairly difficult to determine because many of the classifications are based on solely whether the person visited neo-Nazis or white supremacist website.
The Government Accountability Office has a report identifying white supremacists and neo-Nazis from 2000 through 2016. There were 52 mass public shootings over that period and the GAO identifies four of them who are either white supremacists or neo-Nazis (7.69%). Over the 1998 through May 20, 2021, there were 82 mass public shootings and between 7 and 9 attacks that involved people who were white supremacists, neo-Nazis, visiting neo-Nazis or white supremacist websites, or anti-immigrants (8.5% and 10.97%). One of these racists, Patrick Wood Crusius, who did the El Paso, Texas, mass public shooting, was an environmentalist extremist. He didn’t want immigrants because he thought they would have more children, which would harm the environment.
All this isn’t too surprising given that we have pointed out that 71% of mass public shooters have no identifiable political views.
Our information for all mass public shootings between 1998 and May 20, 2021 is available here.
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