Picture this scenario: You are sitting in a large lecture hall, as you do every day. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, and you are continuing to simply make it through the entire class. Suddenly, a person walks in the back door with a gun. A panic breaks out and you begin to contemplate what to do. Do you make a bolt for the exit? Do you drop down, hide, and hope that you get overlooked? All options pose the possibility of you losing your life.

You first consider the idea of making a run for the door, but you realize that at most the lecture hall has four doors, and it is not uncommon for some to have only two. In the case of having four doors, unless you are on the ends of the rows furthest from the gunman, your chances of making it out alive are slim.

In the case of the room having only two doors, your only option is the door that the gunman didn’t enter through, which is likely on the same side of the lecture hall. Realizing that your chances of making it out of the room alive are slim, and that remaining in the room puts your life at risk, even more, you begin to wish that you could do something to save yourself and your fellow classmates.

You may be thinking: “That scenario is far-fetched and would never happen to me.” However, thinking like that is what leaves so many people defenseless in the crazy world we live in.

Now, picture the same scenario, but add the fact that you now have a concealed firearm that you are familiar with, know how to use, and have legally obtained. Instead of wondering how you could possibly make it of the situation alive, you can now communicate to people that you are a legal concealed carry weapon holder and proceed to handle the situation.

Many people may completely disagree with the idea of concealed carry on college campuses purely because this would only put guns in the hands of even more people, and to some degree, this argument may be reasonable.

However, if the college regulates who can and can’t legally carry on their campus by administering drug tests and recommending that local bars do not allow weapons in their facilities, concealed carry on college campuses could greatly increase the security of those campuses.

Of course, most major universities have their own police force, but if it takes them five minutes to reach the scene to handle the situation and you are already there, you are talking about the possibility of hundreds of innocent lives saved.

Regardless of the situation, the ability to save even one life at any point in time regardless of location is by far worth it to me. As a responsible, safe, and legal gun owner, I believe that one of the only few ways to suppress evil is with the responsible carrying and use of guns both on your person and in your home.