Need your lawful-carry-of-guns-in-school stories from the old days

This thread is a keeper

Ya know, funny thing is that I started out looking for Phoenix-area stories. All I got were stories from every small town in Arizona and around the country *but* Phoenix. Nearly everyone living from Phoenix is from somewhere else.

May I humbly suggest that you guys UBB this thread, or cut and paste certain stories and send them enmasse to your state legislature and selected federal Congressmen?

Don't hesitate. Thar's teachin' to be done.

Rick
 
lawful carry of guns in school

Back in the late 1950's and early 1960's when attending West Rome High School in Rome, GA I was among a group of Boy Scouts that would stop by at an Army Reserve Unit across the road from the school to use their indoor target range. Once a week we carried our cased .22 rifles to school and left them in the Pricipal's office until we picked them up to go shoot after school.
 
Last October I took 18 students trap/skeet shooting during school as a field trip. Another TFL'er assisted me (Field Dressed) Students brought their shotguns to school and we loaded up the van to go out the road. The morning was dedicated to hunter/gun safety.

Being in Rural Alaska still has it's benefits! Will be doing it again next month. Can't wait!
 
As a teenager, I lived on the edge of town. Grab a rifle or shotgun, walk across the road and hunt. My high school was about two blocks away. Every fall would see me walking past the school in the afternoon with a rifle or shotgun. The football team would be practicing. No one saw anything unusual. I'd be hunting within sight of houses sometimes. The adults would check to make sure I was exercising muzzle control and not shooting at game with houses as backstops:) Once they say I was hunting safely, they'd go about their business. Never had a complaint and the police waved at me.
Town of about 5,000 at the time-Waynesboro, Ga.

Oh yeah-the dates. From 1967 until 1972.
 
Around '79 at Linton Stockton in linton, IN. I bought my first gun...on the bus on the way to school. A kid had said he had an old double 12GA and wanted to sell it. For $5.

I told him to bring it the next day and sure enough, there he was, ancient hulk in tow. Now, at the end I'm gonna tell you what that shotgun was, but for now just the description: Barrels hacked off with a saw, big crack in the stock, held closed with two wood screws, surface rust growing in all the nooks and crannies, and so much slop in the lock you could see daylight between the barrels and the block.

I gave him his $5 and stuffed it in the locker for the day. Of course the principal had to see it. And the janitor and a couple coaches and a teacher or two. They all had a good laugh. I couldn't figure out why. :)

Anyway, my dad didn't laugh. He made me sell it back to the kid after using several choice words to describe it. So I sold it ...on the bus again...to some other 13 year old for $10. :) (Gee, wonder how I wound up selling used cars, eh?)

Oh, and the student parking lot was a veritable armory. Every truck had a gun rack and most cars had something rattling round on the floor. The teachers vehicles usually did too. We were supposed to ask before we brought anything inside, and sometimes we even did. :)

Oh, the shotgun? An early LC Smith with the screwy clock work spring driven hammers. Hey, I had no idea what I'd had till probably ten years later. *sigh*
 
school guns

To this day in northern Minnesota kids are given time off for opening of deer season according to an old friend there and many used to bring rifles and shotguns to school and toss them into their lockers and go hunting on the way home.
My brother in the 1960's in shop class had to make a hunting knife it was mandatory project. He also took his military rifle to school and refinished the wood. Teacher insisted the bolt be left at home.
Some schools still teach gun safety classes in school, and my high school had a rifle range in the basement for the school rifle team. It is an Olmypic sport which few like to think about. It was a six point range and closed in the late 1970's from artsy fartsy parental complaints of what "might" happen.
Few recall that up to the late 1960's EVERY postal truck carried a gun and every post office was issued guns. Did the guns change?
 
I attended St. Patrick's School (K-12) in Portland, MI. There were numerous instances during Fall of '90 and '91 when my shotgun was in my car either on school property or on the street bodering the school. I cannot remember if there were any school rules against it, or if I asked my parents' permission. I just wanted to get out to my deer blind as soon as possible after classes were finished. Probably would not have been good news if any school officials\teachers found out about that. If I had the inteligence or maturity I have now (probably an incredible 1% increase), I probably would have attempted to store the gun at a residence of someone I knew near my hunting area. I do not think any firearms related incidents occured at my school while I was in attendance, but I was told that some bonehead kid brought a pistol in after I graduated. I am uncertain of the circumstances. Nobody was hurt. I do not know if he threatened anyone with it.
 
Rats

In Suffolk County (a New York City suburb) during the late '50s and early '60s, many elementary and junior high school boys brought .22 rifles to school (keeping them in unlocked coatrooms during the day) so they could go to the city dump immediately after class to shoot rats. A 25-cent bounty was provided from public funds for every rat-tail brought to the dump's administrative office.

Significantly, there was never any incident involving the inappropriate use of firearms and the community certainly sanctioned this activity.
 
Not very long ago - in Western NY, during mid 90's my high school rifle team was housed in the basement of the school (I'm only 24 - I'm a youngin :) ). Every single day, a dozen young adults decended on the basement firing range and fired hundreds of rounds of ammunition down range. We never had an N/D or any hint of unsafe behavior. Our coaches were experienced competition shooters. We were well instructed and supervised. SAFETY was PARAMOUNT!

But what happens, you ask, when we were going to shoot against other schools? We would pack up our rifles in our rifle cases and carry them through the halls of the school out to our bus. Then these dozen armed children would ride the school bus to another school where we would go fire in that school's firing range. Same process coming back. Everyone was responsible for their own rifle and spotting scope. There were never any problems.

The injuries sustained in the other sports however...
 
Not so long ago...

In like 1991 or 1992 (this was in 7th or 8th grade, if I calculated right.. I'm now 20 and a second year college student) I did a report on gunsmithing in the revolutionary era.

To give an example of gunsmithing work, I brought it a Springfield '03 sporter (we didn't have any muzzleloaders, but I could go over the basics with the 03). The stock was removed from the barrel/action, but both were still there.

I also brought in a lead casting pot and some lead scraps. *ooooh!* I bet OSHA and EPA would've tarred-n-feathered me for that!

I was disappointed when I enterd high school because the shooting team had been disbanded just the year before.
 
Urban Pacific Northwest: In the '70's in the school I first taught in, every halloween a number of us dressed cowboy and carried SSA's, blackhawks, black powder remingtons, colts, etc. Made for some great discussions on safety and history. This practice quietly died out in the mid-'80's, when the school decided not to allow kids to dress up for halloween anymore.

The vice-principal kept a colt snubbie in the top right drawer of his desk. Don't know as he ever had to show it, but knowing it was there just in case was a comfort to some.

Had an acquaintance out in the suburbs that once a year would bring his blackpowder rifle and put on a demonstration for his history class. In the early '90's some parent raised hell all the way to the school board over the bad example he was setting by glorifying guns!

Regards,
Joe

[Edited by Joe Gunns on 05-14-2001 at 10:51 PM]
 
I was born in 1971 in Indianapolis, IN. In the third, fourth and fifth grades, my friend and I took our BB/Pellet guns to school everyday. Westlake Elementary on the Westside of Indianapolis. We walked to and from school about 2 miles. He had a daisy pump, and I had a crosman. I think it was a 760 or something. I just remember it was a crosman pump rifle. Anyway, we'd shoot birds as we walked home. There is a fire department training facility, Wayne Township fire, next to the school with lots of birds and a couple of ponds. We'd shoot on that public land for 20-30 minutes on the way home. One time a cop ran us off, and we came back the next day and the top man at the station said that if anyone gave us any trouble to tell them to go see the top man. So we shot and fished back there all the time. I really didn't think anything of taking the BB gun to school. I'd just put it in my gym bad and put it in my locker. No big deal. I didn't know any boy in grade school that didn't own a BB gun and that didn't take it to school at least once. And this was a school of about 400-500 kids at the time.

In High School, Ben Davis Senior High, Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1987-1989, I'd sometimes keep my savage 24, .22/20guage, in my car so we could go hunting right after school. The only reason I didn't take it in, was that it was my only gun and I didn't want someone to steal it. Ben Davis High is a three year school with about 3000 students.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
MP
 
I teach at a school which has a target shooting team in Alaska. Heck, some schools in the state have finer indoor ranges than I've seen anywhere! Since you want an example of kids BRINGING their guns to school then I'll give you one. Just last October I took 18 students out skeet shooting on a school day. Students were instructed to bring their shotguns to school and we'd drive out to the range together. We'll be doing it again next year.
 
Late 60's high school speech class. Brought 12 gauge shotgun into school for class. Kept it in locker. Do not remember if I told principal or not, no big deal. ST. Clair Michigan
 
Bumped, just in case others have more stories.

BTW, these were published in a gun rights book last year.

Rick
 
Probably not the sort of story you are looking for, but... Sandia High School, in Albuquerque, 1972 to 1974, carried a S+W Model 60, loaded with super vels, fairly often. Sewed a torn off jeans back pocket inside of a jeans jacket, under the left arm. Made a nice carry, and I kept the jacket on, and half unbuttoned most days. Life was interesting, even then. Gary
 
Back in the mid seventys i took a 22 rifle to school in 8th grade to give a demontrative speech. My english teacher lived down the road from me and probably thought that rifle was an extention of my arm, as he never saw me with out it. I usually hunted on his land, so i guesse he wasn't conserned about seeing me with a rifle..

He gave me a B because i forgot my patches at home. :D

That same year our shop teacher reqired us to bring in an old gunstock to refinish. We were expected to not only have access to guns, but to have so many that we could find one that needed refinishing. " If you don't have one, get one from a friend or relative", he said.

Every single kid brought in a beat-up stock with no problem.
 
When I was about 16, I used to shoot in a high school's own indoor range once a week. This was around 1982, Bayport HS, Bayport (Long Island) N.Y.

I didn't go to that school, I was on a team in a neighboring town and we had permission to use the range after school hours. I used my own .22 rifle, but I recollect that the school had a few pretty beat up .22s of their own.

The range was in the school's main building along with numerous other classrooms. It was obvious, observing signs and posters on the walls, that they used the range for sanctioned firearms safety and markmanship training classes for the students of that school district.
 
Suburban Atlanta:

Early '80s: Did an oral report on the Vietnam War in the 7th grade. One of my props: a war-trophy chicom SKS. I had to leave it at the principal's office during the day, but come time for my report, I sauntered off to pick it up and strolled back to class with it under my arm.

Mid '80s: High shool senior parking lot had more than one .30-30 in the back window of a pickup truck; a pure affectation, as we were a lot closer to a shopping mall than we were to anyplace that you could hunt deer.
 
I was raised in rural northern Michigan...

In 1984, I turned 14, and started legally deer hunting... I had a Marlin 336 DT that i took to High School and locked in my locker during deer season.

next year, I had traded up to a Savage 100E in 30-06... that went to the locker...

that continued through my senior year ( Fall,1987) for the 2 weeks of deer season... I was FAR from the only one doing it... (even the girls hunted... at least some did!)

I also took a Mauser into shop class to work on a replacement sporter stock... (built a SWEET .243 and needed to stock it)

then in College, in my Drafting class, I had to do an "exploded" view of a mechanical item... showing it in "3D" form...

I chose my Ruger Mk. 1 pistol... I stuffed it into a rug, and hauled it to class...

ALSO, I took a shooting class at the college (police program) and used to haul my Dan Wesson 15-2 HV to school, and just before marksnamship class, strap that puppy on my hip... (one of 2 students to qualify with a wheelgun... and outshot the entire class too!) also hauled a Rem 870 for shotgun training.

occasionally during the class we'd have "fun" shoots... where we'd shoot rifles and shotguns of our own... I used to haul whatever floated my boat, from dad's Win. 97 Trench Gun, to a Pre-64 Win Mod. 70, 300 H&H Mag in Alaskan Grade, or Dad's Garand...

got alotta weird looks, but it sure was fun!
 
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