Schoolchildren in Virginia who aren't old enough to pack their lunches yet will soon start learning about packing heat.

Move over, Crime Dog McGruff. There's a new mascot on the playground and he's got the backing of the powerful National Rifle Association.

The NRA's Eddie Eagle will soon be offering his brand of gun-safety lessons to the state's schoolchildren.

A new law will require Virginia's education department to come up with a gun-safety curriculum for public elementary schools that incorporates guidelines from the NRA.

The law allows local school divisions to offer gun-safety education to pupils in kindergarten through fifth grade. While each school board can decide whether to offer it, those that do must use the state curriculum -- which will include rules used by the NRA's Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program.

Some parents are up in arms over the new law.

"I personally don't think firearm safety has a place in the schools," Lori Haas, spokeswoman for the Virginia Center for Public Safety, told FoxNews.com. "That's up to the parents to teach that at home."

Haas, whose daughter is a survivor of the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, said her group is outraged that state lawmakers are placing "a burden" on the state school board that it didn't ask for.

"For the general assembly and governor to dictate to the board of education in writing curriculum is not their area," she said, calling the law a "freebie to a special interest group."

Legislation passed in March by the General Assembly had included an amendment that allowed the curriculum to include materials from the National Crime Prevention Center. But Gov. Bob McDonnell proposed removing the amendment because there is no such group, and the legislature on Wednesday approved his change.