In Iowa, a school shooting took place at the Perry High School. On the first day of school after the winter break, a 17-year-old student of the school began firing at 7:37 am. The suspect, Dylan Butler has been pronounced dead after a self-inflicted gunshot on January 4rth 2024, Thursday. The Police arrived at the scene within 7 minutes followed by 100 other officials of the local, state and federal agencies.
A sixth grader was killed and 5 others, including the Principal of Perry High School, Dan Marburger suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The victims were taken to the Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines and MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center. The shooter used a Pump-Action Shotgun and a Small-Caliber Handgun. An improvised explosive device was also found at the school and was immediately disarmed. This is the 2nd School Shooting of 2024.
The social media posts made by Butler around the time of the shooting on TikTok and Reddit are being investigated for evidence. The suspect’s friends are being interviewed. Butler posted a photo on TikTok inside the bathroom of Perry High School, the official said. The photo was captioned “Now we wait” with the song “Stray Bullet” by the German band KMFDM.
As per statistics, over the last five years, 161 were killed in school shootings and more than 300 have been wounded. Iowa does not require a permit for the purchase and handling of a gun, as of January 2021. According to researchers, offenders of such crimes tend to be from effectively functioning family backgrounds or dysfunctional family backgrounds who intend to seek validation, have a history of violence and experience anger management problems. Parents of such crime offenders usually know little about the child’s life.
Dylan Butler has been bullied at school for several years and recently his sister was being bullied as well which was the “last straw” according to his family. He was deeply hurt and tired of the ill-treatment he had to face by the people surrounding him and wanted to put an end to it but was killing and injuring students the solution to all the pain he felt? Communication is the only way to get through these tough situations. Strict rules should be implemented to refrain from bullying and the school system should gain the trust of the children and take necessary action to save these students from taking their own life or inflicting injury on others.
The family of the young child who was killed will feel immense hatred towards Dylan for what happened and will always miss their child. Dylan’s family may blame themselves for not understanding their son better. They too will feel a hollow space forever. These incidents can be prevented with a better communication and judicial system that enforces stricter laws in terms of owning a weapon and carrying it publicly and bullying.
