(Winston-Salem Journal) — A bill introduced Thursday in the state Senate would allow North Carolina public schools to permit people such as school employees and school volunteers to carry guns on campus as a security measure.

Under the bill sponsored by state Sen. Stan Bingham, a Davidson County Republican, school districts could create a new position called “school safety marshal,” which would allow non-law enforcement personnel to carry firearms at school after undergoing a training program. This legislation comes after the Connecticut school massacre in December and calls from some groups to increase the number of armed guards at schools.

The bill’s title says these new positions would “provide additional protection to those attending and working in public schools.”

But the new bill, if approved, could also produce some concerns from school districts about whether they want to let more guns on campus.

Under current state law, only sworn law-enforcement officers are authorized to carry firearms on public school campuses. Most of these people, called school resource officers, are at high schools and middle schools but not elementary schools.

The National Rifle Association has called for armed guards to be at every elementary school after 20 children and six school staff were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

But it would be expensive for law enforcement agencies to hire enough school resource officers for all of the state’s elementary schools. In Wake County alone, where there are 105 elementary schools, school district security staff have estimated it would cost $7.1 million to $8.5 million a year.

The new bill from Bingham, co-chairman of the Senate’s appropriations on justice and public safety committee, could provide school districts a cheap or even free option to get armed security.

Under the bill, school boards could create application procedures for people interested in becoming school safety marshals. The bill said this could include school volunteers, school employees or a person hired by the school to carry out the duties of safety marshal.

The bill directs the State Board of Education and the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission to develop a program to train these new marshals.

The commission would have to establish minium standards and level of training for the position, including on the use of firearms. The focus of the firearms training would be on the use of guns in a crisis situation that may involve unarmed bystanders.

The new marshals would have to complete the program and receive their certification before they could begin.