An old love song speaks of “the little ordinary things that everyone ought to do.” That phrase used to cover instructions such as: “Take out the trash,” “brush your teeth,” “close cover before striking,” “look both ways before crossing.” Ordinary things.

9/11 changed all that.

Now “things that everyone ought to do” include “remove your shoes” and “leave liquids at home.” And “little ordinary things” involve pat-downs, full-body scans, concrete planters in front of buildings and the horror of the unattended package. No more “none of your business.” Now it’s “see something, say something.” All the ordinary things of our day.

Let’s add the latest entry into the commonplace: mass shootings. So far this year, according to a tracker maintained by Reddit called Guns are Cool, there have been 355; that’s an average of more than one a day. And last week’s Colorado Springs massacre came with a twist: a suspect reportedly on a mission to commit premeditated and treacherous murder for ideological and religious reasons.

By a New York Times account, Robert Dear Jr., the accused in Colorado, was no lone, mentally deranged gunman out to shoot people willy-nilly. He is a man of religious conviction and a staunch foe of abortion, obsessed to the point that he allegedly put glue in the locks of a Planned Parenthood facility in Charleston, South Carolina. Dear has sung the praises of people who have attacked abortion providers, calling members of the Army of God, a bunch of antiabortion extremists suspected of clinic bombings, “heroes.”

Dear knew where he was going, and what he was going to do, when he showed up a week ago at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs with a semiautomatic weapon. Hustled off the scene in police custody, Dear allegedly left behind three dead people and nine wounded.

But his mission was accomplished: rendering violent judgment on a public policy and proponents he hated.

Then there’s San Bernardino.

What do you call it when two people — man and wife, clad in tactical gear and black masks, carrying multiple weapons and explosives — engage in a planned attack on a room filled with innocent people, killing 14 and injuring 21? So much for spontaneity and random acts of violence.

The shooters, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, who reportedly met and married in Saudi Arabia, where Farook once lived, engaged in malice aforethought. The question is why. On Friday, the FBI said the mass shooting was being investigated as an act of terrorism. As it should.

How do we handle these little ordinary things that have become part of our lives?

When it comes to personal safety, most people take care to do the things that everyone ought to do: Keep the front door and windows locked, turn on security alarms, get motion detectors and avoid dark alleys and other dangerous situations. Get a dog. Prepare to fight back.

It’s the other — and by now — little ordinary things that tend to confound: unsuspecting men and women whose principal purpose is to violently pursue their political, religious or ideological goals.

That is what we have come to in 2015.

Gun control misses the mark. The mission-driven will find the ways and means to get their hands on tools of the trade.

Going forward, the little ordinary things that everyone ought to do may entail tasks unthought of in years past.

An FBI flier on “preventing terrorist attacks” would have people take on the roles of surveillance cameras: Looking out for anyone filming or monitoring activities, taking notes or using cameras. Being aware of suspicious questions about key facilities or employees. Being on guard against anyone testing physical security or procedures at key events or facilities. Reporting anyone attempting to improperly acquire explosives, weapons, ammunition or dangerous chemicals, uniforms, badges or access cards that could be used in a terrorist attack. Being aware of anyone who doesn’t appear to belong on the job or in the neighborhood, or have business near a key event or facility. Keeping eyes open for abandoned vehicles, stockpiling of suspicious materials or people being deployed near a key facility or event. Saying something about behavior such as mapping out routes, playing out scenarios with other people, monitoring key events or facilities, or timing traffic lights or traffic flows.

Certain activities, the FBI says, can indicate that terrorist plans are in the works. Become a tipster.

The new normal, the little things everyone ought to do. The mere idea, the very thought, foolish as it may seem — today that’s everything.

Colbert Isaiah King is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post. He is deputy editor of the Post’s editorial page.

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