Baumblog EST 1968 - A blog for the Baumbachs who originated in Syracuse, NY

I hope you've heard by now, but there's been a terrible massacre down at Virginia Tech this morning, with AT LEAST 21 DEAD STUDENTS! This is the college that most of my students dream of going to, and many staff here at school have children currently attending. I have quite a few seniors who are planning to go next year.

This is a HUGE blow to us, and I'm sure we'll be feeling the aftermath soon. Many students here in stafford have friends and siblings there. Ironic how this date is so close to the anniversary of Columbine. (4/20/99)

I can't imagine the panic going on there. Some of my colleagues are talking through im with their children who are holed up in their dorm rooms, terrified. The sad thing is that Virginia Tech is located pretty much in the middle of nowhere (as one person put it, if you took away the school you'd barely have enough people to make a full set of teeth). These gunmen went in there with the full intention of killing as many innocent people as possible. And kids, for God's sake!

Geoff said about 1 hour later

Terrible news to hear. We have enough to fear in life, getting a good education shouldn't be one of them. It appears to be only one gunmen? How did he manage to mow down so many people?!? Instances like these make me question the laws of gun control.
Kristen said about 1 hour later

Tell me about it! We just heard that the death toll may now be 32!! I've heard rumors from the mom of a student who witnessed the first shooting that the gunman was an angry old boyfriend of a student.....who knows...it's still sketchy if he's even alive.
GJ said about 1 hour later

Because if we all had guns, that'd fix the problem, right? OK, not the time for a long discussion about gun control. We'll do that in a couple of days, after the dust settles.

Unfortunately, it was just a matter of time...and it can happen anywhere. Schools are a natural target due to the angst and pressures of growing up sourced from there and their population density.

Cue people blaming it on violent video games in 3,2,1....
Kristen said about 2 hours later

We just heard that one of our former students may be a victim...this just sucks!!
GJ said about 3 hours later

As if President Bush couldn't lower himself anymore....his spokesperson states "The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed."

Ho, that's very sensitive of you, Georgie! Let's make sure we put the NRA before the victims, because, dang it, we take care of those who pay the bills!

(so much for me not getting political about this, eh?)
Abby said about 4 hours later

Yeah, I read about that on Yahoo...

I can't imagine what it must be like to personally know someone who was killed by the guy.
Geoff said about 4 hours later

Yeah I don't know why anybody should own a gun. Even for recreational purposes, you should have to rent it and then return it when your finished or something. Think of it as going putt-putt. Obviously it isn't quite that simple, and it doesn't guarantee the prevention of tragedies like these, but it sure could help. One can hope that there will be more awareness and action taken on this growing problem.
Steve said about 6 hours later

First off, I'm very sorry to hear the news. I'll be praying for the victims and their families.

As a gun owner myself, I understand why some people have guns. I enjoy the shooting sporting clays. That said, if the government decided to ban guns, I'd be fine with that. Just give me a fair price for my gun, and you can take it back.

I've tried having the gun control discussion with one of my friends that owns several guns. He was so proud when he bought a SKS rifle. For those not familiar, an SKS is a semi-automatic rifle that was developed by the Russians, but reproduced in large quantities by the Chinese. It's VERY simple to modify it to become a fully automatic gun. I asked him what in the world he could possibly use it for. His response? Hunting. Uh, yea. The precision of those types of guns is not very good. You'd be better off hunting with a precision single shot rifle. So what did he need the 30 round clip for? Well, for hunting small game, of course. In the past 6 years since he's bought the gun, has he hunted with it once? Nope.

I'd be all in favor of banning all hand guns, and all guns that hold more than three bullets in them at a time. Well, really, I'd support banning guns altogether, if it were suggested. Anyone, anyone, who thinks gun control is not going to help reduce crime, is an idiot. Here's some factrs (albeit old data - 1994) about death rates due to firearms per 100,000 people. Note Northern Ireland - wasn't there a lot of violence going on there in 1994? Well, ok, the IRA called for a ceasefire in August 1994, but there was still violence in the first 7 months. And still, much fewer gun deaths per capita than in the US.

Here are gun-related deaths per 100,000 people in the world's 36 richest countries in 1994: United States 14.24; Brazil 12.95; Mexico 12.69; Estonia 12.26; Argentina 8.93; Northern Ireland 6.63; Finland 6.46; Switzerland 5.31; France 5.15; Canada 4.31; Norway 3.82; Austria 3.70; Portugal 3.20; Israel 2.91; Belgium 2.90; Australia 2.65; Slovenia 2.60; Italy 2.44; New Zealand 2.38; Denmark 2.09; Sweden 1.92; Kuwait 1.84; Greece 1.29; Germany 1.24; Hungary 1.11; Republic of Ireland 0.97; Spain 0.78; Netherlands 0.70; Scotland 0.54; England and Wales 0.41; Taiwan 0.37; Singapore 0.21; Mauritius 0.19; Hong Kong 0.14; South Korea 0.12; Japan 0.05.

Sorry GJ, I couldn't help get the discussion started early. I'm blown away by the fact that we let a minority of the country rule the gun control lobby. And really, I think that a lot of people might bitch and moan about gun control at first, but long term, they'd find other ways of enjoying themselve outdoors. Every try bow hunting? It requires more skill, so perhaps that's a better challenge.
GJ said about 7 hours later

That's quite all right--it appears we're probably all on the same side. Gun nuts have been saying all day, "well, if just one of those kids had a gun to defend themselves, they wouldn't have been sitting ducks."

Yeah, right. Can you imagine a world where everyone is packing heat? The Wild West comes to mind. How many of us would settle our differences with a gun, if it were readily available? Think about it--how many times while driving in traffic have you gotten positively livid at someone? Or you're standing in line for Rush tickets, and somebody buts in front of you and costs you those front row tickets you waited in the rain for all night long? Yeah, methinks that murder by gun would go waaaaay up in this kind of scenario.

The gun nuts (I won't call 'em the wacky right, since the gun nuts are a special breed all by themselves) seem to think that Big Government will institute martial law if we don't have the right to bear arms. Um, right. So, to insure we can keep the governent in check, we're willing to sacrifice 15 people per 100,000 each year. For those of you keeping score at home, this is in the ballpark of 40,000 people killed each year. Figure on over 150,000 injured...whether by domestic violence and suicide (major contributors) to murder and spree-killing (far more rare). That's more than we lose to auto accidents.
Kristen said about 8 hours later

I think that all handguns should be banned period. Only police agents and military personnel, with clearance, should be able to carry a piece. I have yet to meet someone who successfully defended themselves from an intruder by having a gun handy in the house.

I think that people could own rifles for hunting/shooting, but there would be an incredibly thorough background check. It would be a real pain in the tush to get your hands on one.

At this point the chances of people taking advantage of guns (like today) and the high numbers of accidents far outweighs the positives of allowing people to own guns.
Steve said about 9 hours later

I'd sign on for Kristen's proposal in a heartbeat. Significant background checks to get a hunting rifle or shotgun. No hand guns. No assault rifles. No firearms than can keep more than, say, 3 shells/bullets in them at a time. 3 is the limit for shotguns in most states for hunting birds. If you're hunting deer, let's face it, you get one shot, and one shot only Same with most other animals.

You're right GJ. There have been times in the car where I have been within inches of running someo off the road. Road rage? You bet. I have no patience for idioits on the road. If I knew I could do it without risk of killing the other person, I think I would have done it by now.
Kristen said about 22 hours later

In addition to the 1 police officer and 2 security officers that we usually have on campus here, we now have an additional police officer. You know, they don't pay me enough to work in a place where I don't feel safe. I feel like I'm really taking my chances--especially with what I know about the social histories of some of my students. I feel like if something happened it would come back on me. Why didn't I know? Didn't I see any warning signs? I see warning signs everyday! And then I call home and nothing happens! I'm at a loss for how to protect myself and these kids. Do we start profiling kids? The thing is that we have to respect their rights and privacy. There is only so much that school officials and the police can do to prevent these things. It's disturbing to me to see them get blamed.
GJ said about 23 hours later

Let's get real, though--this doesn't occur very often, and so far, it's pretty limited in scope. I mean, 30 or so dead in a shooting with a school that has what, 25,000 students...and that's the only spree killing in that school's history. Most schools haven't ever had to deal with this, and never will. Thankfully, the supply of total nutcases is really not that big. However, to Kristen's point--how in the world do you tell the dangerous ones from the not-so-dangerous? What pushes them over the edge? It's understanding this that will make us safer--not locking down our learning institutions like prisons.

And yes, I agree about the blame part, too. We're too quick to assume this is easy to prevent--easy to spot--and it's our fault for not catching it in time.

Fact is, crazy nut cases like this often plan these attacks, sometimes months in advance. They are determined to do whatever it is they are planning, and it's damn near impossible to protect against that in reaction mode at the time of the event. We have to figure out what makes these kind of people tick, but do it in some fashion that doesn't violate basic human rights. It's a tough battle, no doubt.
GJ said 1 day later

Update: apparently, it's people like me that are responsible. Ummm, yeah, right on Ken "I'm an idiot" Ham.
Steve said 1 day later

What really spooked me is the kid is supposedly an engineering student, and most of the killings happened in the engineering building. While I know a lot of us engineers often talk alot of crap about how stupid others are, and how we hate the way things are being done, I also liked to think that all engineers also had enough knowledge to know the difference between right and wrong, or sanity and insanity. I could see them getting ticked off and going after one person (which could be considered sane, as they probably were getting even with the person), but I don't see them going off and killing people randomly.
Kristen said 1 day later

I think he was actually an English major--there's things coming out now about his writings and how he had previously been referred to counseling. Since he was from near me I've been hearing quite a few interviews. Students and neighbors who knew him seem to think he was kind of a weirdo and a stalker...no social skills...he wouldn't respond when spoken to and was just totally disconnected to peers. Probably totally focused on himself and his own misery.

Ironically, this kid claims to have had issues with "rich kids". Funny how he graduated from Westfield HS in Fairfax county--not only one of the wealthiest counties here but also one of the wealthiest high schools. It's a fairly new high school. I actually interviewed with the director of counseling there when I first moved down here. I'm betting his family had some money to be able to afford living in that school district. There's also a huge Asian population near where he lived, so I'm not sure I could buy a 'culture shock' excuse. I think he had been seriously disturbed for some time, and I think quite a bit of thought went into this.
Marc said 1 day later

Since he's Asian and a loner(warning of upcoming stereotype), he was likely into anime. Anime is Japanese cartoons that are typically very much based in fantasy and from my experience are very violent. The description of the event reminds me of all my experiences with anime as well. Most anime with violence includes a character using dual pistols, which happened here, and the character is typically calm and serious during their violent actions, which based on eyewitness reports was apparently the case.

Now I know this is bordering the "games cause violence issue", and I'm in no way going to blame this on anime, but I think completely disregarding games and media influences is being closed minded. I, for instance, love to play games where you shoot other people in multiplayer. Why? Because they require little to no brain knowledge (a.k.a. great time waster) and I do it solely for competition. I enjoy playing any time of game though. Some of these kids connect with this media and relate it to real life, and once you combine that with a slightly messed up child or childhood, you start having trouble. Do we ban games/censor media? No, we watch our kids closely. I bet the parents didn't have the best relationship with the kid.

This is completely based on a stereotype, but give it a day or two, I guarantee you'll hear talk about his media influences and I'd put money on being right.
Marc said 1 day later

Oh to top it off, a student at RIT was arrested today with criminal possession of two assault rifles. He was caught after a staff member heard him assembling them in his dorm room. There was no ammo in his room, but there was ammo in his car. Here's the CNN story:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/04/17/tuesday/index.html

And the e-mail from RIT:

On April 17, 2007 at approximately 11:25 AM, a staff member at the RIT Inn & Conference Center reportedly heard a suspicious sound coming from inside a student’s room. The alert staff member contacted RIT Public Safety.

RIT Public Safety and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office responded to the room, where a student admitted possessing two unloaded illegal firearms that he said he had just assembled. No live ammunition was found in the guns, however the Sheriff’s Office found ammunition inside the student’s parked vehicle. The student was suspended from the university and the Sheriff’s Office investigation continues.
GJ said 1 day later

I don't buy for a minute that violent movies or games cause this kind of behavior. A warped individual may pick up ideas from them, but let's face it--they'll pick up violent ideas from just about anywhere. 99.9999% of those of us who watch a violent movie or play a violent game do not go out and kill people later as a result.

What causes this kind of behavior? Three things: genetics, environment during development, and mental trauma. I doubt it requires all three, but spree killers are often assumed to have at least two.

Genetic: some people have an inability to siphon off rage. Perhaps in less civilized times, these folks were the "alpha males." Today, the worst offenders turn into killers, the lesser violaters just end up beating their spouses and kids. Worse, some kids additionally lack any empathy at all--these are the ones who turn into serial and or spree killers. Lacking empathy, they find it easy to dehumanize everyone around them, and think nothing of ending their lives.

Rearing: violence as a solution to life's problems is taught at home. A kid who watches pop beat mom is almost always going to do the same to his spouse / girlfriends. Couple this with that rage problem above, and you've got yourself a powder keg.

Trauma: you could group this with rearing--mental trauma, especially when young, often scars the victim and warps their view of reality. This is typically the result of sexual abuse and/or exploitation. Coupled again with the rage issue, and once again you have a powder keg.

The ease of access to guns simply makes this worse. This kid--total psycho to those around him--lacks any kind of police record, apparently, and is able to act normal enough in the gun shop to purchase a weapon and ammo, and pass the background checks. Of course, if he wants to kill people he doesn't need to use guns, but let's face it--guns make the job far easily and efficient. Add to the fact that it's very disconnected (you're not exerting much energy, there is no physical connection with the victim unlike a knife attack), and you have the perfect way to enable these spree killers.

Marc--one thing the police community is very concerned about are copycats in the coming days. It appears that may have been narrowly averted at RIT. Kudos to that staff member for making a difference--who knows where that may have gone with out it.
Kristen said 2 days later

I just had an interesting conversation with one of my students (of Pakistani heritage). He said that during lunch today, all the people at his lunch table were coming up with plans of escape for different scenerios. Like what window they would punch out if somebody came from this or that direction, which hallway they'd run down, what they would do depending on which floor they are on, etc....
These kids should be freaking out over the biology test they have next period or debating who like who, not where they'd run if somebody suddenly brandished a gun!!
GJ said 2 days later

Yeah, but honestly--given the circumstances, until things go back to "normal" this will dominate most kids' thoughts, especially those in the 14-20 range. That sucks...but that's how they cope.
Abby said 3 days later

I've read anime in the past, and yeah, it is definitely violent at times. But then, it really depends on the anime. The Naruto ones that Trev reads are pretty violent, as well as the TV show, but the Fruits Basket ones that I read are more into the romance neighborhood, with little violence. But then, I've only read the first few, so I'm not totally sure. But hey, they're both very popular animes/mangas.
GJ said 4 days later

Addendum: read this by Stephen King about violence in writing in the wake of this incident. Short, but interesting.
Steve said 4 days later

That was interesting, thanks for sharing. Key that he points out that you shouldn't necessarily take violent stories as a warning sign, unless there's no talent in the writing demonstrated.

So Marc, is there any work around for the hidden text when I'm typing? Should I just switch to Mozilla until IE7 is fixed?
Marc said 6 days later

I'll see about the workaround tomorrow between class, or maybe during if I get bored. :)

Steve said about 22 hours later

Sounds good Kristen! I took another look at the site, it's very professional looing, nice job!

We missed you (and GJ, Darcy, Abby, Trevor, Aaron, Eric, Gina, Kyle, and Katelyn) at Easter. It was a nice, quiet Easter, hope everyone else enjoyed it (though sounds like GJ could have had a little bit more enjoyable of a weekend).

GJ said 1 day later

Nice, Kristen! I hope your early success continues.

So...I assume you've gotten your tax angles covered--if not, be sure to read up on what you need to do or get an accountant who specializes in LLCs. I assume you are collecting tax from your buyers, right?

Geoff said 1 day later

Sounds great Kristen! Your site is looking good too! Those darn Yahoo web builders have pretty much eliminated the need for people like me for startup businesses. Glad to see it is working out for you, keep trucking along!

GJ said 2 days later

Here's a link for Yahoo Sponsored Search--$100 discount.

Kristen said 2 days later

Cool! Yeah we're pretty well covered on the tax issue. When we applied for the business license, we actually did it through a tax guy. So he did a good job explaining what we had to do and what to watch out for. We're going to go through him to file. And Nancy, one of the five of us business partners, was a business teacher who took accounting classes in college so she is doing the books. So far so good! We do collect tax from Virginia residents, and we got a Visa/Mastercard thingee so we can let people use charge cards--most of our business is through that! We just scored another promotion at a hotel in Arlington, so we're hoping to rake in some dough there.
I just wish that we would pop up with yahoo or google. Nothing yet. I'm starting to wonder if it's the whole .net thing.

Geoff said 2 days later

com is always better, however, it takes time to appear on google/yahoo. Some of the websites I designed took months before they popped up on Yahoo/Google and ranked relatively decent (aka, typing in the company name to actually show up on the first page). For you to show up on the first page of a search, you may have to wait another 3 or 4 months....no joke.

The internet is just plain crowded. Unless you pay to play, or are a highly specialized industry that isn't oversaturated on the Net...you will have a tough time getting quality search results. There are a lot of things you can do to help your site. For instance, make sure you have quality text on the site. For you, that is a bit tougher as you sell handbags...only so much you can tell about them. One thing you can do is try to get your website posted on other websites. Referring sites can really help you site in search rankings, especially on prominent websites. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) takes time. It is not an overnight process, nor is it a "flip the switch" and let the search engines do the rest.

There are companies out there making good money solely selling SEO services. If you want to jump into the Internet and gain some sales from people searching, pay-per-click. It will get you on the search engines instantly. You really are getting great advertising dollars. Every click you pay for is someone physically going to your site. You can't get that guarantee with any other advertising channel out there.

Go Google for Pay-Per-Click, most of your searches are from Google anyways. Yahoo will probably index your site better for free anyway. Google is more thorough in their indexing and tougher for new-comers like you to show up high in the rankings.

Kristen said 3 days later

Good news! We do show up now on Yahoo and Google when you do butler bag and our company name! That was exciting! I signed up for the yahoo sponsored search that GJ listed above, and I listed some things in Google base, which I think made us come up better. I also listed our list on a whole bunch of other search engines...so maybe that's helping.

I've gotten lots of offers for SEO, most that sound scammy. I'm pleased with where we are now, and we will get our website posted on the website for our next promotion soon. I also found out that I can set up a shopping cart feature through paypal, so I'll be revamping my ordering process soon.

GJ said 3 days later

Yeah, there is a lot of scam work in the SEO market. Even Google and Yahoo have come under fire for click-fraud. Proceed cautiously, and spend sparingly. :)