KILLING: TAKEN FOR GRANTED IN OUR SOCIEYT?

The senseless killings by students in our schools has focused sympathy, concern and alarm on the nation's youths. Answers aren't easy to come by. But as a recent incident showed, mayhem in schools is not reserved for youngsters. A sheriff's deputy in Buffalo, N.Y., killed his estranged wife and wounded an aide at a school attended by the couple's children.

Law-enforcement officers are expected to uphold the law, not break it so violently. And what has happened to the notion that criminals preferred to do their dirty work undetected, in dark alleys and out of public view? Nowadays, killers walk into fast-food restaurants, post offices and, yes, schools to randomly kill.

The issue isn't children who kill. The issue is why killing has become so much a part of our society.