Guns At School

[Old Dog]

When I was in high school, we went bird hunting after 7th period in the limited daylight we had left. Every car and truck in my high school's student lot (and the faculty/staff lot) had a gun rack in the back window.

One year, we were almost hoping we didn't get far in the football play-offs as it would impact the first week of deer camp (well, we woulda sacrificed, but fortunately, we weren't that good anyway).

And yeah, we had a rifle team, sponsored by our JROTC folks.

Life was good in the '70s. I kept my deer rifle in my college dorm room until campus security pointed out that it was against the rules, but they weren't real stressed about it.

 

[codytrucker]

I'm 57 .When I was in grade school every year one day a couple came in and brought a bunch of guns and did a little presentation , then let all the kids handle all the guns . In high school my cousin brought his mom's service revolver for show and tell .We had a butcher /slaughter class and where sometimes told we needed to bring a 22 to go field slaughter . Teacher had a nice browning SA-22 in his office all the time. Everyone brought guns hunting season , I rode a greyhound a few times with guns to go hunting with relatives when I was 12 -14 . Never any big deal . And this was in the central coast region of California !! what a difference 40 years makes .

 

[gobsauce]

Uhh.. I still see cap guns in stores? I still see toy guns everywhere? Guns aren't taboo here, just not popular. Not everyone likes guns, and that's okay. I just happen to be one of the few highschoolers who enjoyed school, reading books and fast cars instead of getting drunk, high or both.

 

[DeepSouth]

I never saw a gun in a building at all, the student parking lot was different.

In the early/mid 90’s you could frequently see hunting rifles in the back windows of the trucks of students, we weren’t supposed to but nobody cared. One kid used to shoot his 22 pistol in the parking lot, which was a little distance from the main buildings and basically in a field. No one ever cared.

I had a bus driver bring me a 38 once and asked me to see if my dad could fix it, he was a machinist and did a decent bit of gunsmithing back in the day. My dad didn’t allow me to take it back to her via backpack but he didn’t seem to care I brought it home that way. I was either in 8th or 9th grade at the time.

Finally in 95 maybe 96 me and some classmates went shooting after school (off school property) and someone’s mother called the school concerned, about what I don’t know?

After that, well, things changed. Immediate expulsion and a trip to a judge if you had a gun anywhere on campus, “including in a vehicle and even it never leaves the vehicle.” They told us that over and over and over… looking back it’s funny, you could tell they didn’t care, and they didn’t really have a problem with it, but that didn’t matter. They knew the book would get thrown at someone and they really wanted us to know both of those things.

 

[SmeeAgain]

There are no rules (yet) that everyone must like or dislike the same things.
But... because I don't like something, I shouldn't be able to decide if you can own it or not!

 

[.308 Norma]

I'm fairly old (77). I honestly can't recall guns ever being brought to school.

You have about 4 years on me (I'm 73), but I can only remember a few shotguns in the rear windows of pickup-trucks in the school parking lot, and that was only during pheasant season. I rode the bus, so I had to wait until I got home to go pheasant hunting.
That worked out better anyway. At home, I only had to walk across the road to hunt pheasants. Besides, "ol' Suzie," our Cocker/Brittany cross (the best pheasant dog in the world) was at home. Suzie was also the best sandbur collector I've ever seen.

Kansas City, Missouri, Lawrence, Kansas, and Austin and Ft. Worth, Texas. It might have been different in more rural areas.

Yeah, they probably were different. In 1966, I graduated from Homedale High School (Go Trojans! Yay!) in Homedale, Idaho. Because deer season opened on a Saturday, half the student body was absent the day before - Friday. Of course "half the student body" didn't amount to a heck of a lot of students.

 

[jmorris]

When I was in highschool we shot position rifle (JROTC) under the gymnasium.

 

[entropy]

I try not to quote myself, but since I just posted this in another thread by the OP, and I don't want to type it twice:

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/another-evil-prank.901870/page-2#post-12214774

 

[1942bull]

I think it depended upon where one lived. I was raised and schooled in the Philadelphia (PA) region. I graduated from HS in June 1959. I never saw a gun in any school I attended. The exception being if a LEO came to the school to give a talk.

 

[AlexanderA]

We had our share of fights, and no one ever pulled a knife, nor got a gun and finished it later.

No guns in my school experience, but at least once there was a problem with knives. In junior high school in Austin,Texas, apparently there was a knife fight involving (ethnic) gang members. I didn't know anything about this. The next day, the gym teacher had us all line up and empty our pockets on the floor. In those days, I used to carry my Boy Scout pocket knife everywhere, and so in all innocence I placed it on the floor. The gym teacher made a big show of confiscating it, but later he quietly called me into his office and returned it to me, telling me not to bring it to school again. He explained that the "knife control" wasn't intended for the "law abiding" (read: non-ethnic).

Nothing ever changes. The same mindset applies to gun control today. There's an unspoken understanding that gun restrictions would apply to some people, but not to others. That's why gun-owning liberals can support strict gun control. They're convinced, based on their own experiences, that it wouldn't apply to them. And they're probably right.

 

[buck460XVR]

I graduated from High School in 1971. Generally had a gun in my car, out in the parking lot, during hunting season. This, even tho the principle of the Junior High, two blocks away, was shot to death in his office by a student in November of 1969. I don't think there is a place for students to possess a firearm in any school building nowadays, altho I am for staff, who are qualified, to be able to CWC. Just as I believe entry during the school day needs to be monitored. Just the times we live in.

 

[Space Ghost]

Nobody ever brought guns to school where I grew up except for farm kids or hunters, and those were just rifles or shotguns in racks of the back windows of pickups.
Still, that would be national news of a white supremist terrorist in today's liberal media.

My son takes a pistol to school every day now.
Then again, he's a Sheriff deputy working as a resource officer... something we never had.

 

[hso]

Seriously... when was the last time any of us saw a cap gun in a toy store? Anybody?

A "cap gun" is a cute anachronism, but airsoft and foam dart guns abound.

They're now more common than they used to be just 10 years ago.

As to guns at schools, There weren't any firearms brought into my rural 1970s Middle or High School and there wasn't any student parking on campus. OTOH, there were plenty of gun racks in pickup truck rear windows with a shotgun and a .22 and if you didn't see a gun rack you assumed that they were behind the seat. Whether it was "dad's" or "the boy's" truck it went unnoticed.

My university had shooting sports, but since it was "in town" no one wanted anything stolen from their vehicles so the gun racks were empty in the pickups. Firearms were checked in and out the ROTC armory primarily to provide safe storage against theft or teenage stupidity. Drive by, run in, drop off a gun and get a brass tag. Head out at the end of classes and reverse the process. It was staffed by ROTC cadets who were overseen by an NCO.

 

[Meeks36]

Class of 2000-2001 buddy of mine got expelled for a box cutter in his car. He used it for work. He was talking to a friend principal and leo walked down and said he was selling drugs. No drugs found but his razor knife was. One year expulsion. Another guy got caught w a machete in his truck. Expelled for 6 months. Again he used it for work. Landscaping I believe.
Nowadays if caught with one of those arrested. Boot camp or juvenile. I got caught w a pocket knife in 6th grade. Teacher told me not to bring it back. Forgot I had it in my pocket.

 

[jak67429]

I think alot depends on where you are. My cousins kid got 1 day suspension for showing someone a pic of him and his air rifle he won 3rd at nationals with. next week I am doing a presentation at the hs on our youth shooting program. they are allowing a video of kids shooting, and I am brining our laser trainer with for them to try. This hs also has a trap team. Both of these happened in WI one in a bigger school and other in small rural school.

 

[Reloadron]

Obviously I'm older than dirt but when I was a kid, going to school, guns were everyday items.
It was common for kids to get on the bus in the morning with their rifle / shotgun to either be used at "the school gun club" or to get off the bus at a friend's house after school to go hunting / target shooting.
Of course this was long before guns were considered evil, with minds of their own... randomly sneaking out & causing trouble all by themselves.
Most of us kids grew up on ranches. As such most boys had a knife of some sort on their belt. They were necessary tools... not weapons!
Oh we had typical kid fights, but NEVER did I hear of anyone even remotely threaten another with a gun or knife. EVER!
A huge factor in that... every adult had the same authority as our parents... often worse! If we screwed up, we got our backsides beat on the spot! Then long before we made it home, our parents knew all about it and we got beat again! It was always worse at home!
Nobody screwed up much!
This was both elementary and high school. If I could find my old yearbooks, there are several "gun pics" besides the "gun club photos".
Then something changed, when I wasn't paying attention. Guns suddenly became horrifying!
Arbitrarily biting a PopTart into a crude shape of a pistol became a criminal offense!
What happened to toy guns? Seriously... when was the last time any of us saw a cap gun in a toy store? Anybody?

We must have gone to the same school.

Actually I was NYC born and went to school on LI NY where we had our rifle club. My 22 rifle was in my locker and we practiced in the school basement. Your story makes some interesting points.
"Oh we had typical kid fights, but NEVER did I hear of anyone even remotely threaten another with a gun or knife. EVER"!
"A huge factor in that... every adult had the same authority as our parents... often worse! If we screwed up, we got our backsides beat on the spot! Then long before we made it home, our parents knew all about it and we got beat again! It was always worse at home!
Nobody screwed up much"!

Prior to the gun control act of 1968 I could walk into my local hardware store, buy a gun as easily as a hammer, and walk out. Yet, more and more legislation has been dumped on responsible gun owners and accomplished absolutely nothing, however, undaunted by this the anti gun lobby tries to legislate morality through gun control laws. They refuse to see the truth and root causes of gun violence. Rather than mete out swift punishment people are concerned with or more enmeshed in criminal rights than victims rights.

I regret that my kids and now grandkids are not able to enjoy growing up in the same America I grew up in. You can't legislate morality. I didn't create a coardening of the US culture.

Ron

 

[.308 Norma]

Prior to the gun control act of 1968 I could walk into my local hardware store, buy a gun as easily as a hammer, and walk out.

Ha,ha,ha! My mom and dad didn't sell hammers in their country store/gas station, but "prior to the gun control act of 1968" you could buy a gun in their store as easily as you could buy a loaf of bread or pound of bacon. And, you could buy many, many tanks full of gas for the price of just one Model 94 Winchester.
Sadly, with GCA-68, Mom and Dad quit selling guns through their store. It wasn't worth the hassle.

 

[SmeeAgain]

Remember back then a kid couldn't buy a box of .22 shorts but could be sent to Vietnam?

 

[Speedo66]

I went to school in NYC and obviously there were no guns brought into school (legally). My HS did, however, have a rifle team.

I was a member of a small private range and would ride the bus there and back, starting at 13, with my soft cased rifle and had no problems.

 

[.308 Norma]

Remember back then a kid couldn't buy a box of .22 shorts but could be sent to Vietnam?

Naw, I don't remember that - probably because as I said, my folk's owned a country store/gas station back then, and I got my .22 ammo through them. However, I DO remember there were "kids" that were old enough to be sent to Vietnam but weren't old enough to buy beer at my folk's store.
Luckily I wasn't one of them. I was 21 by the time I went.
BTW, one of the signs my folk's looked for when underage kids were trying to buy beer was that the kids would park their car around to the back of the store building. I don't know why they did that - it was a dead giveaway to my folks that the kids weren't old enough to buy beer.

 

[.308 Norma]

I went to school in NYC and obviously there were no guns brought into school (legally). My HS did, however, have a rifle team.

As surprising as it sounds, my wife's HS in Chula Vista, CA had a rifle team too. My wife wasn't allowed to join though. Her mom wouldn't stand for it, and I think her dad preferred picking his battles.
At any rate, as I've said before, my wife is as into guns as I am now. Sometimes she tells me, "I only married you for a ticket out of California, you know."
We've been married for going on 51 years though. So it's getting hard for me to feign being hurt when she tells me that.

 

[Speedo66]

Naw, I don't remember that - probably because as I said, my folk's owned a country store/gas station back then, and I got my .22 ammo through them.

There was a little sporting goods store across a large blvd. from where my range was in Queens. The range was in the basement of a small business building, pretty much hidden.

They sold ammo there, the owner would ask where you were going to shoot it. If you said the range across the street, he's sell it to you no matter your age, 50 cents a box for Remington standard velocity.

 

[Shawn Dodson]

When I was in the 4th grade (1970-71), I took a fully functioning Chicom Type 56 (SKS) to school for show & tell. It was recovered off the battlefield (Hiep Duc in Vietnam) where my father earned his Purple Heart. I asked my teacher if I could bring it, she asked the Principal, and the Principal contacted my parents. No problem! I hand carried it to and from school that day, through the neighborhood. This was in Oceanside, CA, right next door to Camp Pendleton. I still have that SKS.

 

[Offhand McFlan]

I believe it was 1990 when I first faces a huge cultural change. When I was a freshman I was initiated by the seniors in the high school. We all were as they were just 4 years earlier. It was not bad, but a bit embarrasing at times, but a right of passage graduating from junior high to high school. My senior year, 1990 there was no initiation and the whole thing was changed to welcome week. I don't know if this was good or bad, but it was a bit odd. I got initiated, I had no say in it. I also had no say if they were going to do away with it when I was a senior. I don't recall any debate or discussion about it at all, it was just done.

This is a bit later in the chronology, but - I believe they got rid of the initiation for something that was considered more sensitive and less likely to hurt anyone emotionally. Years later - I had a short discussion on initiation with someone I went to school with and they said that it crippled them, and had a lifelong impact. I asked them what was so bad, and they said they had to crawl of the floor while older kids laughed at them. I really had nothing to say other than, I think if that is something you really think had a lifelong affect on you, you have much bigger issues than once having been teased for a few minutes by outgoing seniors. but, I guess maybe anyone ever feeling bad for 2 seconds, or facing their fears, or having an excuse to interact with all the seniors as a freshman, which no longer exists, well - all the valuable lessons there nobody cared a whit about. Someone felt bad once, make it go away. damn everyone else who thinks it was a great thing to participate in and good for everyone.

You are SO right about that year. It was the year I graduated and the "Wall" in Europe had just been condemned. Then corporate capitalism started running amok, and began ousting governments everywhere including ours by buying our intelligence community out. The New World Order was finally having it's day. IMMEDIATELY thereafter my high school was fitted with cameras and police in the hallways. It was NOT in repsonse to any real threat. It was "1984" happening 6 years behind schedule. It was all about control. And I'm sure the Military Industrial Complex that became the New World Order began deliberately cultivating false flag incidents to justify their over-the-top security measures. They could have these things under control but instead they keep it in limbo to keep everyone, not just criminals, under control. That's how it stands today.

It's extremely important for today's youth to really understand what really happened in that year. It was far more than just the fall of European communism. It was the beginning of American fascism which had nothing to keep it in check. Excuses, excuses, excuses.

 

[AlexanderA]

It's extremely important for today's youth to really understand what really happened in that year. It was far more than just the fall of European communism. It was the beginning of American fascism which had nothing to keep it in check.

I don't -- and didn't, at the time -- see 1990 as any sort of watershed. The process of polarization has been quite gradual.