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A gunman killed a sixth-grade student and injured five other people at a high school in Perry, Iowa, early Thursday morning just as students were arriving back to school after their winter break. Four of the injured were students, and one was an administrator, Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said at a news conference on Thursday. One of the injured victims was in critical condition. The administrator was identified by Easton Valley Community School District as Dan Marburger, the principal at Perry High School, where the shooting took place. Officials did not release the names of any other victims. The gunman, identified as Dylan Butler, a 17-year-old student at the high school, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Mr. Mortvedt said. Law enforcement officials believe he acted alone and said the motive for the attack was not yet known. (Tumin, Mather and Mensching, 1/4)

The 17-year-old student at the high school is believed to have acted alone. The motive of the attack was not clear, according to law enforcement officials. Dylan Butler was armed with two firearms – a handgun and shotgun – and a makeshift explosive device when he walked into Perry High School around 7.30 am. He opened fire on the campus minutes before classes resumed. The teenage gunman’s friends told The Associated Press that he was a quiet person who was bullied for years. “He was hurting. He got tired. He got tired of the bullying. He got tired of the harassment. Was it a smart idea to shoot up the school? No. God, no,” said 17-year-old Yesenia Roeder. Her sister Khamya Hall, also 17, echoed similar views alongside their mother Alita. They said that their classmate, who police identified as the shooter, was bullied relentlessly since elementary school. That escalated recently, they said, when his younger sister started getting picked on too. Officials at the school didn’t intervene, they said, and that was “the last straw” for Butler. (1/5)

While law enforcement has not commented about the alleged shooter’s gender identity or sexual orientation, social media users focused on the appearance of a Pride flag on an account allegedly linked to the shooter, and it led to a narrative amplified by right-wing influencers online. That account is no longer available, but screen grabs of its content have circulated widely on social media. ... Chaya Raichik, known for running the anti-LGBTQ+ Libs of TikTok social media accounts, began posting hours before the shooter was identified, alleging him to be gender fluid, based upon a hashtag allegedly included in the person’s social media footprint. She later posted a meme inaccurately linking several mass shooters to the LGBTQ+ community. Elon Musk amplified this idea on the platform X, formerly Twitter. (Wiggins, 1/4)

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley called for mental health reform following the deadly school shooting in Perry, Iowa on Thursday. “We have to deal with the cancer that is mental health. We have to,” Haley told voters at a CNN town hall in Iowa. “One in three people have a mental health issue, but if treated they can live a perfectly normal life. What we see is that 80 percent of mass shooters are in some sort of crisis at the time that they do that. We have got to do better. The problem is we don’t have enough mental health therapists.” (Manchester, 1/4)

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy criticized the “knee-jerk policy reactions” he expects to see from politicians calling for gun control legislation after a school shooter killed one student and injured five others on Thursday. In a sit-down with voters Thursday, Ramaswamy said the legislative focus shouldn’t be on guns, but on mental health. (Robertson, 1/4)

It is rare for politicians to shift their views on policy issues as culturally divisive as gun rights. But the expressions of remorse underscore how the failure to change laws in response to Sandy Hook continues to haunt many who held power at the time — prompting some of them to openly wonder if they allowed short-term political considerations to cloud their judgment on votes that might have saved lives. (Wallsten and Kane, 12/27)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: States Begin Tapping Medicaid Dollars To Combat Gun Violence 

To tackle America’s gun problem, a growing number of states are using Medicaid dollars to pay for community-based programs intended to stop shootings. The idea is to boost resources for violence prevention programs, which have been overwhelmed in some cities by a spike in violent crime since the start of the covid-19 pandemic. An infusion of reliable federal funding, advocates say, could allow these nonprofits to expand their reach to more residents most at risk of being shot — or of shooting someone. (Young, 1/5)

American schools are expected to spend $3.5 billion on security this year, according to the research firm Omdia, part of a growing trend in spending on defense against active shooters. Greg Vecchi, director of research and training at SafeDefend, says the company's technology can help people survive a shooting at schools and workplaces. (Saberi, 1/4)

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and law enforcement officials are touting a big milestone in the battle against gun violence. In 2023, the Garden State had its lowest number of shootings in 15 years. Governor Murphy says it's because of the collaboration between officials at every level, as well as community programs. The number of shooting victims dropped 13% from 2022 to 2023, and the number of those killed by gun violence was down 8%. (1/5)

A new report from the state found that gun violence has actually decreased since a controversial firearm law took effect, but police warn it doesn't tell the full story. Gun owners in Ohio were able to legally carry a firearm without a permit as of June 2022. Police and gun safety advocates testified that it could cause an increase in gun violence. Now, the data is in. The Center for Justice Research report took data from Ohio’s eight largest cities and analyzed crimes related to firearms, verified gunshot-detection alerts and the number of law enforcement officers shot. (Trau, 1/4)