It’s hard to keep all the different shootings in all the different towns straight,"

Even mass shootings become routine after a while for many Americans not yet directly affected.

Another city goes into lockdown. Millions of smartphones flash with news of the latest horror. Video shows police storming into another building and snaking lines of survivors being rushed to safety. Soon, muted TVs playing cable news in tire shops, bars and airports nationwide show speeding ambulances and white-coated hospital spokespeople briefing on trauma injuries. It may be a day before the family snapshots of the victims emerge.

Mass shootings end lives in a senseless instant. Survivors may take months to recover, if they ever do. And the agony of those close to the victims will never end. But for most of the rest of the country, life goes on, because there’s no other way.

On Wednesday, it was the turn of Atlanta, Georgia, where a gunman became enraged during a visit to a midtown medical facility, allegedly shooting dead at least one person with a handgun and injuring four others before he was caught hours later after a manhunt.