Two mass shootings in a week... America really must be feeling better.
First some lunatic murders eight people across the Atlanta area, and then a second lunatic opens fire on a super market in Boulder, Colorado.
These tragedies occur with such frequency I'd forgive you if you'd completely forgotten that in February, another crazed gunman attacked a health clinic in Buffalo, Minnesota, killing one person and critically injuring three more.
I only remember because I wrote about that one too.
Just like I've written about so many other mass shootings.
I know I'm not the only who's tired of it.
Tired of the tragedy, the mourning, and the political clash that follows each grisly incident.
Of course, nothing ever gets done. Our democracy is so broken it can barely handle even the most fundamental tasks - like transitioning power after a presidential election or curtailing a deadly disease.
And regardless of how you might personally feel about gun control - pro or con - let me save you the trouble of getting your hopes/hackles up...
Nothing is going to get done this time either.
The government will achieve nothing of consequence.
No guns are going to get banned or confiscated. There's not going to be some broad new push for better mental health treatment. There's not going to be an enforceable national standard for background checks.
The government isn't going to save us from this nightmare.
We're going to have to do it ourselves.
We need private-sector solutions.
And if you're once more getting the creeping sense of deja vu, it's because yes, I have talked about potential solutions before.
One potential solution in particular.
You see, for the past few years, I've been pitching a company that addresses this very problem, along with many others.
It marries cutting-edge technology with common sense. It has the potential to prevent many mass shootings.
And the way it does so is as simple as it is discreet.
The company I'm talking about makes digital advertisements. That alone is an intriguing proposition when you consider the digital ad market is expected to grow from $1 billion now to more than $32 billion by 2025.
But more than that, the company's software - which can estimate a viewer's age and gender and deliver personalized ads tailored to their demographic - can also identify weapons and wanted persons.
Indeed, it has over 500 weapons in its database. So it can tell if you're carrying a gun, a knife, or even a bomb.
If a criminal's mugshot or the photo of a known terrorist has been processed, it can identify their face as well.
It can even alert the authorities to their presence in real time.