Firearms in school, did you ever......?

Sourdough · #1 01/13/12, 06:41 AM

Question........?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sourdough

Did you ever take firearms to school......??? I sometimes ponder how the world has changed. Being born in the 40's and raised in the 50's in rural PA. things were far different than today. Back then there was a special bus for farm boys, it came by later so farm boys could finish milking. And it departed early from school so farm boys could get home for the afternoon/evening milking.

We took our firearms to school, and had the bus driver drop us off on the otherside of the mountain, so we could hunt deer on the way home. In Jr. High school you just put your firearm in the cloak room. In High School we had our own lockers, for our books and firearms. It did not matter if deer season was open, as you could shoot deer on your own farm, any time of the year..........

Crowbar · #2 01/13/12, 06:56 AM

In the 50s my brother made a gun in shop class. It shows how our country has changed and not for the better.

OkieDavid · #3 01/13/12, 07:12 AM

In the late 1970's through 1980 I remember a couple of kids riding the bus to school with firearms. As they got off the bus in the parking lot the bus driver would hand them their guns. I guess the driver had to keep them up front during transit. As you weren't allowed to have them IN the school, the kids would carry them across the parking lot and put them in whoever's car they were going hunting withnafter school. It was very common for pickup trucks to have gun racks in the back window with firearms readily displayed in the school parking lot.

Laura Zone 10 · #4 01/13/12, 07:35 AM

The boys had their shotguns, in the rack, in their pick up trucks in the parking lot of the school ALL THE TIME when I was a kid.
No biggie.
Especially in hunting season.....
No one batted an eye.

Micheal · #5 01/13/12, 07:42 AM

Growing up and living in the village I always walked to school - never carried a weapon of any sort - never had a need nor desire to. Besides the area I hunted, fished and trapped in was in the opposite direction; school toward the west, hunting etc to the east and I lived in between........
Although for those that drove cars/trucks during hunting season you'd see a gun or two hanging in the back window with no concern to anyone's safety.

ace admirer · #6 01/13/12, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laura Zone 5

The boys had their shotguns, in the rack, in their pick up trucks in the parking lot of the school ALL THE TIME when I was a kid.
No biggie.
Especially in hunting season.....
No one batted an eye.

same here

Saffron · #7 01/13/12, 08:40 AM

Even into the 80s and 90s where I grew up, there were gun racks in the trucks and rifles in them - in the school parking lot. And no one thought anything about it and no one attempted to steal them.

I've really wondered when and how that changed? I wonder if the auto companies had anything to do with it? At some point they quit selling trucks with gun racks in the window.

I know it became a "movement" and now it is a rarity of to see a gun rack in a truck. There are a lot of people who would look at you in horror if you even mentioned it, too.

tkrabec · #8 01/13/12, 09:49 AM

Its stupid people thinking its the gun that is the problem. PEOPLE are the problem NOT GUNS. there are people who should not be allowed to own them because they are a danger to them selves and to others.

Also the School Boards are another huge part of the problem with 0 tolerance. What they define as weapons is getting "better" as they now define a pen/pencil as a weapon, that you are required to have, & can be held against you.

I carried a pocket knife thru most of my school years (80's & 90's) I do not consider knives to be a "weapon" they are tools, unless used as a weapon, much like a shovel or hammer... At the same point I don't really consider Guns to be "weapons" unless used as such, however its much more common for someone to use a gun as a weapon than a hammer.

OkieDavid · #9 01/13/12, 10:26 AM

Something else that is considerably different today is theft.... Most of the kids I ran with never even had to bother locking their car/truck doors. You would see expensive chainsaws in the back and guns in the rack with the windows open and the doors unlocked.... Heck, today there are folks that will bash out a window just to see what's under a coat sitting in the back seat. If a person has a chainsaw stolen out of the bed of their truck today the common response is "why did you have a saw sitting in the open like that"... We went terribly wrong somewhere down the line and I find it sad.

mekasmom · #10 01/13/12, 10:55 AM

Guns and knives were common back when I was in school. The boys would keep their hunting guns in a rack in their pick up trucks. In fact, back then, it was pretty normal for some kids to "skip" school on the opening day of deer season or other popular hunting days. Pocket knives were just a normal part of boy attire from early grades on.
But, back in the day, nobody ever would have considered using any type of weapon to hurt another kid at school either. When the kids had a disagreement that got too intense they used their fists, not a weapon.

big rockpile · #11 01/13/12, 11:02 AM

I know of couple Schools it is still common practice to bring Firearms to School during Hunting Season.Teacher just puts them in closet.The kids also bring Skates to School so they can go Skating on the Pond on School property.

big rockpile

KarmaK · #12 01/13/12, 11:11 AM

I started teaching in an upper-class suburban school, and it was about federal case when a couple of kids wanted to do a research paper on guns. Then I moved to the country, and kids regularly came to school from hunting, and complained that they had to hide their guns in their trucks because they couldn't have them on school property. The admin never searched the cars or anything. It was kind of a "don't ask, don't tell" policy where, as long as the guns weren't in plain sight, they didn't worry about it.

**Cabin Fever** · #13 01/13/12, 11:40 AM

I remember firearms safety class back in 1965, I was 12yo. On the last day of class, the instructor let us do a "show and tell" of our firearms. I carried my Model 12 shotgun - uncased - through a major Minnepolis suburb for five blocks. The firearms class was conducted in the city library, consequently I carried the uncased shotgun into the library to the meeting room. Not only did I do this, but so did about a dozen other guys.

InvalidID · #14 01/13/12, 11:59 AM

Took metal shop in a NJ middle school and made myself a really cool butterfly knife. Brass handles, engraved em and everything. My teacher was a bit 'red' but he agreed I did a fine job and never said a word about me making a knife. One of the kids in class told the principal on me and I got suspended for 5 days for bringing a weapon to school. Well, 3 for the weapon and another 2 for not turning it over to her. Still have that knife today.

Few years later I was in high school up in Maine. We'd bring guns to school during hunting season and no one batted an eye about it. Being from NJ I never asked the officials about it... afraid of the answer I suppose. Different place though as we'd get 2 weeks off during potato harvest so the kids could help.

ace admirer · #15 01/13/12, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tkrabec

Its stupid people thinking its the gun that is the problem. PEOPLE are the problem NOT GUNS. there are people who should not be allowed to own them because they are a danger to them selves and to others.

Also the School Boards are another huge part of the problem with 0 tolerance. What they define as weapons is getting "better" as they now define a pen/pencil as a weapon, that you are required to have, & can be held against you.

I carried a pocket knife thru most of my school years (80's & 90's) I do not consider knives to be a "weapon" they are tools, unless used as a weapon, much like a shovel or hammer... At the same point I don't really consider Guns to be "weapons" unless used as such, however its much more common for someone to use a gun as a weapon than a hammer.

i'm fat because of my fork.....

SmokeEater2 · #16 01/13/12, 12:52 PM

I was in school in the mid 60's through '79 and like a lot of others here, it was common to see guns in window racks in the school parking lot.

I grew up on a ranch and my first vehicle was a beat to heck Chevy pick up that my Dad had used for hauling hay and feed,barb wire and fence posts. Boy what a babe magnet that was!

Anyway, I always had at least a .22 in the gun rack and a pistol laying on the seat and nobody batted an eye about it.

As far as I know,every boy in school carried a pocket knife and that was absolutely normal too. One year we got a new pretty young teacher that all of us were completely smitten with, and one day she asked if someone would loan her a knife to open a box with. Every guy in the class jumped up trying to be the first to her desk so she could use their knife.

Fist fights were pretty common but there was not a single incident of a kid making a threat with a gun or knife the whole time I was in school. Times have not changed for the better in my opinion.

tyusclan · #17 01/13/12, 01:33 PM

I graduated in 79, and my experience is pretty much like everyone else's. All the boys had gun racks in the trucks with shotguns and rifles hanging in them. The principal and asst. principal were always up for looking at a new gun when we got one.

The principal used to look me up in class to borrow my pocket knife. We all had pocket knives and belt knives, and no one thought a thing about it.

Stephen in SOKY · #18 01/13/12, 01:43 PM

We not only carried them to school, we obtained them there. FFA sold magazine subscriptions and the reward was a brand new gun or two. The more you sold the better the gun. I recall lots of Marlin model 60's, I picked up a Rem 552 BDL and a Browning A-5 light twenty among others.

braggscowboy · #19 01/13/12, 02:50 PM

I was a teacher for 30 years and a lot of the boys knew I hunted and they did not get to hunt for various reasons and I would take my guns and bows to class and show them how they operated and let them handle them and never a problem until people who were in charge and knew nothing about weapons along with political views that were paid for saw a need to change everything. I always carried a weapon in my truck, not to shoot someone, but something if the need would arise. Stephen do you still have that 552 BDL?

oakridgewi · #20 01/14/12, 09:05 PM

I have to agree things have certainly deteriated. When I was in HS, the school had a trap league. Deer season was an excused absence. (though I was just as often picking corn instead) The farm boys all carried a pocket knife out of habit. Guns in the gun rack of your truck in the school lot.

Like another said, fist-fights occured, but NEVER, EVER was anyone injured or threatened with a knife or gun.

Boy, I miss those days.

sy