other . Violent television programs were subsequently blamed , as video games sometimes are today . The connective theory has long been : if society desensitizes people to violence , if violence becomes a commodity , then it will proliferate . If people are passively taught that violence is everywhere , then violence will sprout , if not everywhere , then many wheres . But to place the brunt of the blame for this on outside forces is to duck a truth that we are understandably reluctant to face : the impulse to murder without remorse seems to be , in some people , almost like a learned language , deriving from somewhere deep and difficult to find . Thankfully , it remains relatively rare , although during weeks like this one it is not easy to take much comfort in that . Yet with each new torrent of killings , with each new demonstration that , to some among us , the idea of spreading heartache and horror is not only acceptable , but attractive ... With each new demonstration of that , we find ourselves once again looking for lessons , in a search that can seem perpetually
Editor 's note : CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a bestselling author whose forthcoming book is `` Late Edition : A Love Story . '' Police tape surrounds the scene of a shooting in southern Alabama on Wednesday . -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Carnage in Germany , carnage in Alabama , and one of the most saddening aspects of the killings is this : The impulse to ask `` why , '' while present , seems somehow muted . There will be a search for answers -- why did Michael K. McLendon , the gunman in the American South , murder 10 people , why did Tim Kretschmer , the gunman in the German South , murder 15 people -- but even when a tentative answer is arrived upon , it almost certainly wo n't mean much . Because the real answer we 're searching for -- the answer that will stop these bursts of bloodshed -- seems destined to ever elude us . There is always an impulse to blame obscene killing sprees on outside stimuli . In the years just after World War II , comic books were cited as an incitement for young people to harm each