When I grew up gun racks in the pickup were for guns. We carried them all the time. We even traded guns in school. Never thought a thing of it. Even bought and sold from teachers as late as 1985.
We hunted after school before we even went home.
The world has changed beyond my ability to absorb it these last 15 years.
I remember as late as 91-92 when I was in HS that folks had gun racks in trucks in the parking lot and we had a hunting safety in school where some could bring their rifle to class.
From the time my Dad was about 12 (late ‘30s) until he joined the Navy he routinely hunted near the Pennypack Creek on the grounds where Jeane’s Hospital now stands in Philadelphia. He’d walk there from his Fox Chase home with his Sears double barrel shotgun in his hands. Nobody thought a thing of it. Passing drivers smiled and waved.
Try doing that today.
It wasn’t many years before that when those of us who took the NRA gun safety course (taught in the school) used to bring .22 cal rifles to school, drop them in the industrial arts class, and they’d sit there all day. We would come at the end of the day to attend the NRA class, and the rifles were there waiting for us. Nobody ever messed with them...never any incident. Of course, if a dozen 12 year-old boys came to school carrying unloaded .22 cal rifles over their shoulders we’d see a unit of Special Forces troops assaulting the school within minutes.
The world has changed beyond my ability to absorb it these last 15 years.
So true. My high school had a room with the word "ARMORY" painted on the door in military stencil.
In 1966 at Northeast Louisiana University we could have our weapons on campus. We were not allowed to keep them in our rooms. The dorm mother Mrs. Carpenter had a closet in her quarters for our weapons. We would check them out from her to go hunting or shooting, We would then take them to our rooms and clean them and return them to Mrs. Carpenter.
Times have definitely changed and not for the good.