(Photo by Aristide Economopoulos/NJ Monitor)

Gun violence is an epidemic in our society that kills almost 50,000 Americans every year, including close to 2,000 in North Carolina alone. Last year, the U.S. experienced more than 500 mass shootings. No other modern nation comes even close to these frightening rates.

And yet, amazingly, over at the North Carolina General Assembly, Republican state legislative leaders seem bent on doing everything they can to make the situation even worse. In recent days, they’ve introduced multiple bills that would allow anyone 18 or older to carry a concealed weapon without any kind of training or permit.

Yes, you heard that right. The bills would make it perfectly legal for a high schooler (someone who can’t legally buy a beer) to obtain and carry a concealed handgun in public — at the grocery store, in a movie theater, or just walking down the street — with no rules whatsoever.

And you really can’t make this up.

The bottom line: America’s gun violence crisis is a rapidly growing wildfire, that Republican lawmakers are preparing to douse with gasoline.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.