McVeigh and Whitman were military veterans.

So was Patrick Sherrill, who killed 14 of his co-workers at an Edmond Post office in the 1980s, said Mike Robinson, director of public safety at OSU.

It was the deadly rampage by Sherrill, a former Marine and a small arms instructor in the Air National Guard, that inspired the expression, “going postal.”

Rep. Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie, introduced the campus gun bill. He said college officials used fear tactics against his bill, and he disputed their claim that it would have increased security problems.

Murphey and others argued that properly trained people with concealed handguns could avert deadly episodes like one last year that left 33 dead, counting the shooter, at Virginia Tech.

“If we can’t trust our veterans, who can we trust?” he asked.