RIP, Dan Marburger
Jan. 14th, 2024 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerSometimes the tragedy of the week keeps on tragedy...-ing. That happened today when school principal Dan Marburger died from wounds he incurred in a shooting at his Des Moines, IA area school on Jan. 4. Marburger died after a week and half from multiple gunshot wounds he suffered trying to intervene to stop the shooter. Example news coverage: Des Moines Register article, 14 Jan 2024; NBC News article, 14 Jan 2024; CNN article, 14 Jan 2024.
With neither a weapon nor police or military training[1] Marburger tried doing what he knew as an educator— to talk to the shooter, try to calm him down, and if nothing else delay his rampage so that students in the line of fire might escape. Marburger succeed on the last of these, as only one other student, whom authorities believe was shot before Marbuger, died.
Marburger, aged 55, worked his whole career in education, and had been principal of Perry High School in Perry, IA since 1997. He leaves behind a wife, 5 children, at least one grandchild, and other relatives.
[1] I point this out because it's an article of faith among gun rights supporters that "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." There's sadly very little evidence supporting that as (a) a good many of these nutjob shooters with too-easy access to guns kill themselves in their rampages, (b) the record of even trained police officers in stopping mass shooters is checkered at best— here I'm thinking specifically about the Uvalde, TX school shooting in May 2022 when police officers waited an hour an a half to confront the shooter even as students pinned down in the school where the shooter was still shooting made repeated 911 calls begging authorities to intervene— and (c) the record of civilians intervening is worse. When Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was injured in a Tuscon, AZ mass shooting in 2011, a would-be good Samaritan with a gun rushed to the scene and attempted to fire his weapon at a person he saw reaching for a gun on the ground. Fortunately for everyone involved that would-be good Samaritan's gun jammed; because the person he intended to kill was another good Samaritan who had just helped disarm the mass shooter.
With neither a weapon nor police or military training[1] Marburger tried doing what he knew as an educator— to talk to the shooter, try to calm him down, and if nothing else delay his rampage so that students in the line of fire might escape. Marburger succeed on the last of these, as only one other student, whom authorities believe was shot before Marbuger, died.
Marburger, aged 55, worked his whole career in education, and had been principal of Perry High School in Perry, IA since 1997. He leaves behind a wife, 5 children, at least one grandchild, and other relatives.
[1] I point this out because it's an article of faith among gun rights supporters that "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." There's sadly very little evidence supporting that as (a) a good many of these nutjob shooters with too-easy access to guns kill themselves in their rampages, (b) the record of even trained police officers in stopping mass shooters is checkered at best— here I'm thinking specifically about the Uvalde, TX school shooting in May 2022 when police officers waited an hour an a half to confront the shooter even as students pinned down in the school where the shooter was still shooting made repeated 911 calls begging authorities to intervene— and (c) the record of civilians intervening is worse. When Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was injured in a Tuscon, AZ mass shooting in 2011, a would-be good Samaritan with a gun rushed to the scene and attempted to fire his weapon at a person he saw reaching for a gun on the ground. Fortunately for everyone involved that would-be good Samaritan's gun jammed; because the person he intended to kill was another good Samaritan who had just helped disarm the mass shooter.
