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Just imagine this, no matter how unlikely it seems. You’re on the third floor of the library doing something innocuous or mundane — let’s say that you’re cramming for an exam or thumbing through the pages of your textbook when you hear a loud and distinct popping sound, something that sounds like firecrackers. Your desire to maintain a sense of normalcy grapples with your feeling that something just isn’t right. You try to rationalize that the noise must be some type of work that’s being done downstairs, probably a maintenance man repairing something. It’s only when you hear the screams of your fellow students that you realize that you’re involved in an active shooter situation.

Everyone has been exposed to the events that have recently occurred in the last two years: a group of terrorists massacred concert-goers in France, a husband and wife team gunned down their coworkers in an event deemed “workplace violence” and, more recently, a lone gunman opened fire on innocent people in an Orlando nightclub. The standard issue government protocol dictates that victims should run, hide and then, as a last resort, fight. I must admit to you that I sneer when I read “fight.” Fight? Fight with what? My fists? In a life or death situation I’m supposed to bulrush my attacker with nothing but my fists or some blunt object near me? Let’s be honest with ourselves: it’s irrational. It’s a suicide mission. Which, I guess brings me to my reason for writing this: I want to be on a level playing field with my attacker; I want to be able to carry my pistol while on campus.