Another shooting spree in an American High School last Thursday has once again left us all shocked. As well it should. However, it isn’t quite as horrifying this time somehow, is it?

On a rational level, we all believe that this is a terrible tragedy. At the same time, we can feel ourselves not being as outraged as the first several times this happened.

No one would want to admit it, but maybe we aren’t as impressed; we’re starting to feel as if this has been done before, It just gets easier to ignore all the time.

We look at our children, at the games they play, the programs they watch and especially their attitudes toward violence. We shake our heads with disapproval, believing that more should be done. But we don’t do anything to discourage their tendencies.

Kip Kinkel’s parents, however, did do more. They recognized their son’s problems. They had him on prozac, in anger-management counseling, and they tried to curb a dangerous obsession with guns into a constructive hobby to vent his excessive rage and perverse curiosity.

They tried to deal with his social behavior in a rational manner. But at some level, it just wasn’t enough, and they eventually gave up, trusting in providence while constantly afraid.

Perhaps it is time for us to realize that the problem is much more complex than just guns in the home or the phony violence on TV.

The very real violence in our society thoroughly saturates all aspects of our lives. Even those of us who think of our towns and cities as relatively safe can think of incidents of extreme violence we either witnessed or were made aware of.

Our children are growing up in an atmosphere not only of violence, but tolerance and acceptance of violence by their parents, elders and society as a whole. We have seen violence in the cities for years and accepted it as inevitable.

The recent outbreaks of violence in our nation’s schools are symptoms of an endemic problem. If you don’t believe it, try watching Fox on any given night. We worship violence.

Unfortunately, the more often these events take place, the more desensitized to them we will all become, and the more likely they will be to continue unabated.

Until we find a new way of dealing with violence, we will have to live with it and keep finding someone else to blame.