The difference between California and Alabama.

ALBERTVILLE, Alabama -- A state legislator from Marshall County wants to provide a legal pathway for to school administrators and teachers to carry guns to keep schools safe.

Rep. Kerry Rich, R-Albertville, said today he is planning to pre-file a bill for the state House of Representatives to consider when it goes into session in February.

Under Rich's plan, the bill would authorize a school system superintendent and board of education to identify and approve potential administrators and teachers to carry guns.

The plan potentially thrusts Alabama into the midst of the ongoing national debate on how best to keep schools safe in wake of the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 first-graders and six school employees dead.

Rich, who serves on the House Education Policy committee, pointed out that the principal at Sandy Hook, Dawn Hochsprung, encountered the shooter and attempted to stop him before being shot and killed.

"If she had had a gun, or someone in that school had a gun, they could have taken him out before he reached the students," Rich said. "That's all I'm trying to achieve here -- a way and a means where people have a way of protecting themselves and students in schools."

Rich said putting the decision of which school employees should carry guns in the hands of the superintendents and school boards would be most appropriate because they know the employees best.

"They know the people that work for them," he said. "They know their character and they know their background. They know if they be able to a handle a gun. These people would be required to go through the same training as far as handling a gun as a police officer would."

Rich said he has received favorable responses from other legislators he has discussed the bill with as well as law enforcement officials. He said he planned to have the bill ready when the Legislature goes into session on Feb. 5.

Rich said he was already considering similar legislation before the Connecticut shooting.

"I'm not saying this is what brought my attention to it but it's probably part of it," Rich said. "I've got a 6-year-old granddaughter in kindergarten now. Certainly I want her protected. I wanted all children protected. I don't want any of them to face this kind of situation."

Passing a restriction on guns would not be sufficient, Rich said.

"We need to be logical, we need to be realistic about this stuff," he said. "Passing another gun law is not going to help the solve problem, in my opinion. There are some things you can do maybe on the fringes of things. You don't want people with mental problems to be able to get guns. We don't want people convicted of felony -- especially convicted of crimes of violence -- to be able to get a gun. The only thing I would even think about in that regard would be at gun shows that you have to do a background check.

"I think the gun laws are basically adequate. We need better enforcement. If we would enforce the laws we have, they are probably adequate. The thing that's really bad, in my opinion, we have gotten to a point where our culture is in such a fix, these kinds of things happen."

Rich said he's "wide open" to entertaining other ideas on school safety. School safety will be at the forefront of a joint meeting between state representatives and senators on Jan. 9 that will include state Superintendent Tommy Bice as well as prosecutors and law enforcement officials, Rich said.

"I'm listening," he said. "I don't claim at all to have the corner on the market on the thinking on all this. I'm wide open listening to people and their ideas. This is one way that I think you could approach it that would be effective."