Three bills that advanced in the Oklahoma House on Wednesday would dramatically expand the rights of gun owners to carry weapons, with or without a license, on virtually any private property in the state.

One of the bills would also give public school boards the ability to let licensed handgun owners carry their weapons inside schools. The law now only lets law enforcement and certified armed security guards carry guns in school.

The bills' author, state Rep. Jeff Coody, said House Bill 3192 lets schools respond to an emergency situation. Coody was persistent in his advocacy for the bill, even after a fellow lawmaker mentioned an incident on Wednesday in Georgia, in which a teacher allegedly fired a gun inside his school, then barricaded himself from police.

"This is the time when people are most focused on the situation," replied Coody, R-Grandfield. "Any time you have a perpetrator with a weapon, the only reasonable response to that situation is to meet force with force."