Things you CAN'T do with guns anymore...

[Hokkmike]

I suppose I am probably one of THR's older shooters. Not real crotchety old but up there. I was reflecting to a friend about things that I have done with firearms in the past that would now land me in a State Police barrack or local Sheriff's holding cell. We ARE losing our freedoms.

1. When I was a junior in college I had one rifle for deer hunting. It was a well used model 94 Winchester in .32 Special. I would lean it in the closet of my dorm room and absolutely nobody cared. I could walk from my car in and out of the building and the only people to stop me were admirers of firearms or other inquiring hunters.

2. In my first few years of teaching, UPS delivered by new Smith & Wesson model 1500 .243 to the high school. I remember getting it at taking it in to the principal's office so that we could both pick it up, fondle it, and admire its lines. Do that now and leave in handcuffs.

3. Not too many years a go students, mostly older teenage boys, could give a speech on his shotgun, deer rifle, or black powder set-up, and bring their weapon in to the school. They would simply place them in the corner of the principal's office or lock them in the closet of my room until they were needed for the speech. We did keep the bolts removed.

4, Up until recently I could keep a loaded pistol inside my locked car under the seat. (I have a Permit) Now, if you so much as drive on campus with a ,22 shell in your car you could end up leaving in somebody else's well lit (flashing lights) car.

5. Here is the latest. Students can not even draw pictures of guns with out arousing great fear and concern. I guess it is pretty obvious what they are being taught. And THIS in a school that still has a rifle and shotgun team.

Well, that's how much things have changed.....

We are gradually being made (as gun enthusiasts) into mindless fanatics.

 

[Snarlingiron]

I often have the same thoughts. I do think that a child mentioning a gun or drawing a gun being punished is beyond absurd. I can't believe that this hasn't been challenged in the courts yet.

 

[Dorryn]

3. Not too many years a go students, mostly older teenage boys, could give a speech on his shotgun, deer rifle, or black powder set-up, and bring their weapon in to the school. They would simply place them in the corner of the principal's office or lock them in the closet of my room until they were needed for the speech. We did keep the bolts removed.

This still happened as recently as 1995, I recall students being allowed to do this. Of course, that was still pre-Colombine...

5. Here is the latest. Students can not even draw pictures of guns with out arousing great fear and concern.

Depends on the school. See my thread here.

 

[Liko81]

I often have the same thoughts. I do think that a child mentioning a gun or drawing a gun being punished is beyond absurd. I can't believe that this hasn't been challenged in the courts yet.

The punishment has to be severe enough to make fighting for its removal worth it. If a kid got a day of in-school suspension (basically an all-day detention), The parents no matter how pro-gun will tell their kid not to bring up guns while at school, and to ask their teacher before writing a paper containing the word.

If the student were sent home or even expelled just for the mention of it, I as their parent would fight it. That's a black mark on my son or daughter's record that you can bet universities will look closely at (or not; many universities get enough applications that they're looking for reasons to reject you just to make a dent in the pile), all for saying a three-letter word (It's not even four letters for Pete's sake; how can it be a bad word). I would appeal to the principal, then the superintendent, then the school board, and then it goes to court. It quite simply is an unjust punishment, regardless of how logical the rule is, the word 'gun' is not by itself threatening; only when enclosed in a threat does the word carry weight, and even then it's not the words, but the sentence that is the problem.

 

[h0ss]

Well, that makes sense. Obviously if a child is drawing a picture of a handgun or other firearm, thats one step prior to them snapping and going on a shooting rampage. I know every time i even see a picture of a gun, i start to lust for blood. Dont you guys? /sarcasm

 

[zinj]

This still happened as recently as 1995, I recall students being allowed to do this. Of course, that was still pre-Colombine...

My cousin (who lives in rural Iowa) would leave an automatic shotgun and ammunition in his truck when he went to his high school in 2003 (wow, already four years) during hunting season. Never had a problem to my knowledge (of course I don't think he walked into school saying "Hey guys, guess what I got in my truck...").

 

[Handyman]

1. Can't put my shotgun in gun racks in the rear window of my pickup , when going hunting , anymore
2. Can't hang my favorite gun on the wall
3. Can't buy guns just about anywhere - Sears , Walmart , every sporting goods store etc.
4. Can't go and practce shooting at tin cans out in the woods

One thing that has changed for the better is that I now have a ccw permit - couldn't get one years ago . But I'm not sure if this is because I moved to a different town . In my State it's left up to the cheif of police of the town you live in to issue ccw permits or not .

 

[SamTuckerMTNMAN]

6.) Show a movie like "Jeremiah Johnson". I was denied today, even with parental consent because it is rated PG, and has guns.

Of course, middle schoolers are never exposed to sex and wanton violence without a context or mentor to discuss it with OUTSIDE of school.....

keep in mind this movie was PG in 1972.

st

 

[Deer Hunter]

My senior year of high school (06-07), I had a friend that was called out because the drug dogs smelled something funny about his truck. Keep in mind, this is a 1A school. 42 kids in my graduating class, and we're out in the country big time. This friend of mine is a huge hog hunter, as is the rest of his family. His truck probably smells like dead pig and gunpowder.

So the dog sniffed out a loose .270 round. Oops, simple mistake. But they searched his vehicle and found a large knife he used while hunting for hogs. They caught him on it and made an example out of him.

Sadly, my school administration has gone downhill in the years I was in high school.

 

[redneckrepairs]

Keep in mind, this is a 1A school. 42 kids in my graduating class, and we're out in the country big time.

Brought to mind an old small town tradition that just cant be done many places any more .. Go to the town Dump and shoot rats .

 

[Deer Hunter]

Reneckrepairs,

This is also one of the only schools left that allow corporal punishment (GOD BLESS IT!).

 

[Grandpa Shooter]

When I was 14 I used my paper route money to go down to the local hardware store and buy my first 22 bolt action. It was (and still is) a Stevens Model 34. Still the best rifle I have.

I could take it to school and keep it in my locker so we could go hunting after school. In the summer I biked everywhere with my .22 and fishing pole. Never got stopped or questioned. I could hitch hike to my friends house and people would stop and pick me up and drop me at the end of his driveway. It was a mile up the driveway. (His parents owned 1,000 acres.)

Try that today!

 

[jfh]

In 1955, I was ten years old--and we lived in Willmar, MN, a west-central MN city of about 10,000.

Late in the fall (after hunting was over; at this time of year) and through the winter, I shot weekly at the NG armory range--which was downtown, about six blocks from our house. So, weekly, I would walk off, alone, carrying my father's 22 pump (cased) down to the armory. My mother was usually at work, as a nurse on the evening shift, and my father had died about six months before. Part of the winter my grandmother lived with us, but I was a bit of a latchkey kid, I guess. Never gave it a second thought.

As I recollect this, I must have started doing this when I was nine; my father was in the hospital, terminally ill, starting shortly after Christmas of 1954, and I shot at the armory for two seasons. In 1956 my mother remarried, and we moved to another town.

Nobody, from the neighbors to the cops (who I kind of knew, because the COP's son was a classmate), thought anything of this.

Jim H.

 

[trueblue1776]

I remember buying ammo from the tack & feed when I was old enough to ride my bike there by myself (maybe 12 or 13?).

Nowadays I get carded buying 12ga shells at the sporting goods store, or have to ask for assistance to get a brick of .22's out of the locked counter at the big box, because .22LR is pistol ammo now.

 

[pax]

Two of our local public high schools still have a rifle team.

pax

 

[Dorryn]

Two of our local public high schools still have a rifle team.

Now thats a school I want to teach in! Hows Washington state for special ed. teacher salaries? lol

 

[Omaney]

I remember seeing an old "Adam-12"" episode a while back. Reed and Malloy had a grade school aged boy turn out his pockets...case pocket knife, slingshot, a few nickels. Imagine a pocket knife in a school nowadays! I am a grumpy old man (Not that old!) who thinks times are changing for the worse.

 

[soutex50]

It just goes to show you how our society as a whole has deteriorated.....all of us were taught the right way by our parents about guns, respect for elders and honor. Nowadays, its kids having kids or they just don't care because they are absorbed in their careers or somthing else that they don't take the time to teach their kids family values. Sad but true. Schools and society in general attack guns and gun ownership when in fact it is parents who have failed to be what such title implies, parents.

 

[Snapping Twig]

When I was a freshman in HS, my older friend gave me a home cast .58 cal Minnie ball and I carried that in my pocket like a good luck charm. I read about guns in Boy''s Life magazine. I bought my 5mm Sheridan on my own W/O adult help using paper route money.

There was no gun violence to speak of. Our men came home from Viet Nam with their rifles by their seats on airplanes.

Compare today to the depression where poverty was universal and guns were abundant, there was little violent crime. Today's malfeasance has little to do with poverty and need, the cause of today's problems center on the lack of morality and responsibility - liberalism/socialism.

We have a generation of spoiled brats that want what they want when they want what they want and they have no compunction about lashing out since they're never wrong 'cause they're always right. Satisfy the id and no long range thought (consequences). Add to this a system that is a self perpetuating and bloated bureaucracy where one size fits all (progressive) and you have the irresistible force meeting the immovable object.

So, when you see people pilloried on the altar of political correctness and their lives ruined, remember what life used to be like and vote accordingly. So long as a single flame burns, there is hope.

 

[Hook686]

I understand ...

... I recall keeping my Rugar M77 and Super Single Sic revolver in my USAF barracks room back in the 60's. I had ordered them through the mail ... $160 for the M77, $125 for the Super Single Six. It was simple to simply take the guns from my room to my car and either leave the base for hunting, or range practice.

I was also on the base small bore rifle team. We used one of the local High School's rifle ranges, located in the school basement for evening practice.

One of the posts reminded of the days we would go out to the base riding stables at night and shoot rats.

Ahhhh the changes that take place in one's life, if lucky enough to life that long.

 

[eddiek]

you know it was not that long ago that I made a crossbow in woodshop....1990 I think....... Try to do that now.

 

[silverlance]

I would love to start a rifle team at my school. Right now I'm working on an archery team as that seems to be more PC.

 

[TCB in TN]

Still depends on the school/area. In our school you still have the kids bringing in pics of the deer they took over the weekend. Kids still tell their teachers and their friends about target shooting and the new gun they got for their b-day. Our county has a school sponsered trap team, and are organizing a rifle team. Now guns and knives are not allowed at school but the mention of the word is not a problem.

 

[hqmhqm]

When I was a kid we were visiting Los Alamos new Mexico, probably around 1972. Some kids out in back of the hotel were shooting at cans with a .22 rifle. We went out and asked if we could shoot, and had a lot of fun.

I don't know if it's still like that out there...

 

[f4t9r]

i remember when I would grab my gun walk down the sreet to a near by field and hunt. Can you imagine walking down the road with a gun today !!!!!