Tag: Gun Violence

What do we know about the school shooting in Iowa? | Gun Violence News

A sixth grade student has been killed and four others, including three students and a school administrator, have been injured in a school shooting in Iowa. Only one victim has been identified by name.

Here are the details:

When did the shooting happen?

The shooting took place at Perry Middle and High School, in Perry, Iowa at 7:30am (13:30 GMT) on Thursday before the first day of classes had even begun. The shooting triggered an immediate police response as emergency vehicles and armed units rushed to the school.

Responding authorities also found a “pretty rudimentary” improvised explosive device in the school, which they disabled.

Among those injured was a school administrator, who was later identified by his alma mater as Principal Dan Marburger. He is the only victim of the shooting who has been identified by name.

Who was the shooter in Iowa?

Authorities identified the shooter, who was found dead at the scene, as Dylan Butler, 17, but have so far provided no information about a possible motive.

Authorities said Butler had a pump-action shotgun and a small-calibre handgun.

Butler is believed to have shot himself. “Officers immediately attempted to locate the source of the threat and quickly found what appeared to be the shooter with a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation told reporters

Butler’s mother, alongside two of his friends, told The Associated Press that he was a quiet person who had been bullied for years.

Where in Iowa did the shooting take place?

Perry is about 65km (40 miles) northwest of Des Moines, on the edge of the state capital’s metropolitan area.

It is home to a relatively diverse population of about 8,000 people living in low-slung, single-storey homes spread among trees now shorn of their leaves by winter. Census figures show 31 percent of Perry’s residents are Hispanic. This compares with fewer than 7 percent across the state.

The high school and middle school are connected, sitting on the east edge of the town.

How have US Republicans reacted to the Iowa shooting?

This shooting comes a week before the Iowa caucuses, a series of local meetings held throughout the state during which Republicans usually indicate their preference for a presidential nominee to represent the party in the November presidential election.

The incident sparked responses and prayers from Republican candidates but no policy proposals have emerged. Guns are likely to once again be a hot topic of debate during this election cycle, with little legislative action expected.

Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy posted a video on X of him meeting two parents whose daughter was at Perry’s nearby elementary school that day.

“Our purpose here was to pray and reflect, to make sure something like this never happens again,” Ramaswamy said.

Republican candidate Nikki Haley also extended her sympathies on X. “My heart aches for the victims of Perry, Iowa and the entire community,” she wrote.

Gun violence in the US

This is the fifth recorded incident of gun violence in the United States in 2024, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-governmental organisation that defines a mass shooting as one which results in four or more people wounded or killed.

Gun violence is ubiquitous in the US – with more guns than people in the country. Attempts to curb the spread are often met with stiff political resistance. Last year there were a total of 656 shootings. News outlet Education Week said that 37 school shootings in 2023 resulted in injuries or deaths.

The day before the Iowa shooting, a 15-year-old allegedly shot a man outside a high school in Virginia. No one was identified in the case and it was not clear if either were students.

According to a database maintained by news outlet Education Week, this makes the Perry incident the second school shooting so far this year, bringing the number of recorded shootings to 183 since 2018.

Since July 2021, Iowa has not required gun owners to hold a permit before they can buy a handgun or carry a firearm in public, although it does require a background check on anyone buying a handgun without a permit.



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Multiple people wounded in Iowa school shooting, US authorities say | Gun Violence News

Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante says the gunman in the shooting at Perry High School has been identified.

Multiple people have been wounded in a shooting at a high school in Perry, Iowa in the US, officials said.

The shooting at Perry High School took place just after 7:30 am (13:30 GMT) and resulted in “multiple victims”, Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said at a news briefing on Thursday.

He said the extent and exact number of injuries were still being determined.

A spokesperson for UnityPoint Health, which operates a nearby Des Moines hospital, confirmed that two gunshot victims had arrived there.

There were few students and faculty in the building at the time of the incident, Infante said.

The suspect in the shooting has reportedly died due to what investigators believe is a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

At the briefing, Infante said that the shooter had been identified but gave no further details.

Police respond to Perry High School in Perry, Iowa [Andrew Harnik/AP]

Eighteen-year-old Rachael Kares told The Associated Press that she was finishing jazz band practice when she and her bandmates heard what she described as four gunshots spaced apart.

“We all just jumped,” Kares said. “My band teacher looked at us and yelled ‘Run!’ So we ran”.

Kares added that she ran out past the football field with others from the school and heard people yelling, “Get out! Get Out!” as more gunshots were heard.

FBI and US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents have responded to the scene, and the US attorney general has been briefed, a US Department of Justice spokesperson said.

Dirk Cavanaugh, the mayor of Perry, said, “There are a bunch of speculative numbers floating around.”

“We have no confirmed numbers of who was involved yet,” he added.

The attack occurred as Iowa is expected to hold the first statewide contest for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in 11 days.

Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur who founded a biotechnology company, was scheduled to hold a rally in Perry but changed the event to an in-person prayer after reports of the shooting, a campaign spokesperson said.

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US appeals court allows California to ban guns in most public places | Gun Violence News

A federal appeals court put on hold a judge’s ruling that declared the law, set to take effect in 2024, unconstitutional.

A federal appeals court in the United States has cleared the way for a law passed by the state of California that bans carrying guns in most public places.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Saturday suspended a December 20 injunction issued by a judge who concluded the Democratic-led state’s law violated the right of citizens to keep and bear arms under the US Constitution’s Second Amendment.

The law is set to take effect at the start of 2024.

The three-judge panel issued an administrative stay that put the injunction on hold until a different 9th Circuit panel can consider whether to issue an even longer pause while the litigation plays out.

The measure, which was set to take effect on January 1 after being signed into law in September by California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, was enacted after a landmark ruling in June 2022 by the conservative-majority US Supreme Court that expanded gun rights nationwide.

The Supreme Court in that case struck down New York’s strict gun permit regime, offering a broad interpretation of the Second Amendment, the basis for gun rights in the US.

Series of court challenges

The ruling, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v Bruen, limited legislators’ ability to restrict firearm possession in public. It also led to a series of court challenges.

California, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the US, was among a group of states with similar laws as New York and following the Supreme Court’s decision, moved to revamp its firearms regulations.

Under California’s new law, people could not carry concealed guns in 26 categories of “sensitive places” including hospitals, playgrounds, stadiums, zoos and places of worship, regardless of whether they had permits to carry concealed weapons.

The law, Senate Bill 2, also barred people from having concealed guns at privately owned commercial establishments that are open to the public, unless the business’s operator posts a sign allowing license holders to carry guns on their property.

A group of concealed carry permit holders and gun rights groups including the Second Amendment Foundation, Gun Owners of America and the California Rifle & Pistol Association sued, arguing the new law was unconstitutional.

US District Judge Cormac Carney, an appointee of the former Republican President George W Bush, on December 20 agreed and blocked the law pending the outcome of the case.

The law “turns nearly every public place in California into a ‘sensitive place’, effectively abolishing the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding and exceptionally qualified citizens to be armed and to defend themselves in public,” Carney wrote.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta quickly asked the 9th Circuit to put that injunction on hold pending an appeal, saying that leaving the law blocked would mean that “tens of millions of Californians will face a heightened risk of gun violence”.

Similar laws adopted by other states have faced litigation as well. A federal appeals court on December 8 ruled that New York state could bar gun owners from carrying weapons in many “sensitive locations” including parks, zoos, bars and theatres.

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Prague university shooting: What we know the day after | Gun Violence News

EXPLAINER

A gunman killed 14 people and injured 25 in the Czech Republic’s deadliest shooting.

The Czech Republic has declared a day of mourning after a shooting in the capital city, Prague. World leaders have offered condolences, and police have boosted security in schools and other public facilities.

Here is all you need to know about the shooting:

When and where did the shooting happen?

A student opened fire on Thursday at 3pm (14:00 GMT) at the Charles University’s Faculty of Arts, which sits in a busy tourist area in Prague’s Old Town near sites like the 14th-century Charles Bridge.

The gunman struck the fourth floor of the philosophy department building of the institution located near the Vltava river in Jan Palach Square.

How many people were killed and injured?

The gunman first shot and killed his father in his hometown of Hostoun, just west of Prague, before killing 14 other people in the Czech capital and injuring 25, including three foreign nationals — two from Saudi Arabia and one from the Netherlands — authorities said.

Of the people killed, 13 have been identified. Authorities warned that the death toll could rise.

This is the deadliest mass shooting of its kind in the Czech Republic’s history. Previously, the nation’s worst mass shooting was in 2015 when a gunman opened fire in the southeastern town of Uhersky Brod, killing eight people before fatally shooting himself.

Who was the shooter at Charles University?

The alleged shooter was identified as a 24-year-old student at the university. Authorities said he was a high-achieving student with no prior criminal record.

However, Prague Police Chief Martin Vondrasek said later that based on a search of his home, the alleged gunman was also suspected in the killing of another man and his two-month-old daughter in Prague on December 15.

The suspected gunman died at the scene, according to the interior minister. Authorities are investigating whether he was killed by police or whether he died by suicide.

The shooting was premeditated, the police said. Officers had “unconfirmed information from an account on a social network that he was supposedly inspired” by a mass shooting in Russia this year, they said.

After a search of the suspect’s home, the police said he legally owned several guns and was armed during the attack.

What are the Czech Republic’s gun laws?

Czech firearms legislation recognises the right to “acquire, keep and bear firearms”. In 2021, a constitutional amendment legally guaranteed the right to self-defence with a weapon or the defence of someone else.

To obtain a gun licence, people are required to go through multiple steps, including safe-handling training and testing.

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Day of mourning declared after 14 killed in Prague mass shooting | Gun Violence News

Flags will fly at half-mast on December 23 as people observe a minute’s silence for the victims of the attack at Prague’s Charles University.

The Czech Republic has declared a day of mourning after a 24-year-old student shot dead his father, before killing 14 people and wounding 25 others at his Prague university in the country’s worst-ever mass shooting.

Following a special cabinet meeting, President Petr Pavel said December 23 would be a day of mourning with flags on official buildings to be flown at half-mast and people asked to observe a minute’s silence at noon.

“I would express my great sadness along with helpless anger at the unnecessary loss of so many young lives,” Pavel said.

“I would like to express my sincere condolences to all relatives of the victims, to all who were at this tragic incident, the most tragic in the history of the Czech Republic.”

The shooting erupted on Thursday afternoon at the Charles University’s Faculty of Arts, across the river from Prague Castle and near other historic sites in the picturesque city including the 14th-century Charles Bridge.

Media images showed students evacuating the building with their hands in the air, and others perched on a ledge near the roof trying to hide from the attacker, while students barricaded classrooms with desks and chairs.

“I can confirm 14 victims of the horrible crime and 25 wounded, of which 10 seriously,” police chief Martin Vondrasek told reporters after the shooting.

The shooting targeted the historic Charles University in the centre of Prague [Petr David Josek/AP Photo]

All the victims were killed inside the building, he added. Media reports said at least some of them were the gunman’s fellow students.

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs said one of the injured was a Dutch national.

People lit candles outside the university, which was established in 1348 and is one of the oldest in central Europe.

“We mourn the loss of life of members of our university community, express our deepest condolences to all the bereaved, and our thoughts are with all those affected by the tragedy,” Charles University said in a statement.

Lives wasted

Vondrasek said the gunman, previously unknown to the police, had a large number of legally owned weapons and that swift police action after a tip-off earlier in the day had prevented even worse carnage.

Police evacuated a Faculty of Arts building where the gunman was due to attend a lecture, but were then called to the faculty’s larger main building, arriving within minutes after reports of the shooting, Vondrasek said.

Police had “unconfirmed information from an account on a social network that he was supposedly inspired by one terrorist attack in Russia in the autumn of this year,” Vondrasek told reporters, describing the attack as a “pre-mediated horrific act”.

Authorities did not name the gunman but said he was a high-achieving student with no prior criminal record. His death was probably a suicide, but authorities were also investigating whether he might have been killed by police who returned fire.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the “lone gunman … wasted many lives of mostly young people”.

“There is no justification for this horrendous act,” he added.

United States’ President Joe Biden condemned the “senseless” attack and the White House said the US was ready to offer assistance.

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “solidarity” with the Czech people, as did other European leaders including EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Police said all those killed died in the building and at least some of them were the gunman’s fellow students [Petr David Josek/AP Photo]

Later on Thursday, Vondrasek said that based on a search of his home, the gunman was also suspected in the killing of another man and his 2-month-old daughter in Prague on December 15.

Gun crime is relatively rare in the Czech Republic.

In December 2019, a 42-year-old gunman killed six people in a hospital waiting room in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava before fleeing and fatally shooting himself, police said.

In 2015, a man fatally shot eight people and then killed himself at a restaurant in Uhersky Brod.

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Czech police say people killed in shooting in downtown Prague | Gun Violence News

Czech police say a shooting in downtown Prague has killed an unspecified number of people and wounded others.

Police gave no details about the victims or the circumstances of Thursday’s gunfire in the Czech Republic’s capital.

They say officers were deployed due to a shooting at a school in Jan Palach Square.

The Philosophical Faculty of Charles University and the Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design are located in the area.

More to come…

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