When guns and schools were pals

Journal Times ^ | Mike Moore

[tarawa]

When guns and schools were pals By Mike Moore

Time to settle up on a bet.

It started with a conversation I had in a Downtown bar a couple of weeks back. A guy tried to convince me when he'd gone to Mitchell Middle School, there was a shooting range in the basement.

He saw my skeptical eyes narrow into that "How many have you had?" look. He suggested I try to confirm it.

Possibly, if I'd read my buddy Chris Bennett's Glad You Asked column about another old range, I'd have believed the story right away. But the guy described more than the thing's existence. He remembered students traipsing into the school office to get the guns.

Could be that sounded foreign because I've adapted already to the world of ID badges and students emptying backpacks at metal detectors. Yes, that's the same world where rule-happy principals feel compelled to throw the book at students who carry butter knives to home-ec class. But it's also the world where "Columbine" has instant name recognition.

So I took the case. Besides, the odds were double if I won.

First, I stopped at the school, on Racine's south side. Principal Bob Wilhelmi said he'd heard rumors of the range, but that there's no shooting down there now. Only dust bombs skipping from box to box in storage.

A couple of phone calls sent me into a bit of a time warp, with each person referring me to the previous Mitchell principal. Finally, I reached Wally Stenavich, who was principal in the late 1950s or so and still lives in the area. Was there really a shooting range in the basement? "I helped build it," he said.

An industrial arts teacher oversaw the construction of it and started a rifle club league. Stenavich was a student in 1939 and got involved in one of the teams.

Later, as a teacher and principal, he took over the teams.

Dang, my payoff was in danger. The only chance I had left was to squeeze by on a technicality. I asked Stenavich if the guns were stored in the office, as I'd heard.

Sure, he said. And we're not talking the air rifles that some schools compete with today, the ones that barely give crows a tickle.

"At the time, the U.S. Army was encouraging these things, and they supplied us with the rifles," he said.

Not quite like picking up a hall pass.

"It wasn't the tightest control, kids in and out of the office," Stenavich said, but he didn't remember any problems or injuries.

The range had more features than the one at Horlick High School, he said. A separate door to the outside kept teams from disturbing the nighttime activities upstairs.

I'm assuming it was soundproofed somewhat, although a well-timed "BOOM" can really liven up a PTA meeting.

The rifle teams from various schools would compete, which produced an occasional battle of the sexes. Stenavich remembered the time one cocky boys' team got beat by an all-girls team.

"They concentrated a little better after that," he said.

The spirit of competition is stuck in Stenavich's bloodline. His grandson Adam, from Marshfield, has a shot to be an NFL offensive lineman after signing with the Carolina Panthers this week as a rookie free agent.

The competition was secondary at the range, though.

"Our main purpose was to teach gun safety," Stenavich said, "and hunting was a big thing during that time."

After he moved on, Stenavich said, nobody was there to oversee the program. The rifles were sent to an armory in St. Louis.

I suggested 21st century America would never allow this. To him, that's a sad thought.

"We've become paranoid in this world," he said. "But I have a lot of confidence in our kids."

And I have a little more confidence in barroom storytelling.

[Tijeras_Slim]

I wish I had kept the jacket I had all my patches, including Distinguished Expert, sewn on! :(

[SauronOfMordor]

My old Catholic high school had a basement range. In the 70's.

In the middle of Manhatten

[Trteamer]

When in high school during the early 70's, my 12 guage was always in my trucks gun rack during duck season. No one gave it a second look. The ducks paid big time.

Now I would be arrested. I'm really glad I grew up when common sense prevailed.

[kerosene]

In the Spring of 1982, while in high school in North Las Vegas, Nevada, my Air Force Junior ROTC instructor, a retired Senior Master Sergeant, told my class that each of us would have to teach a fellow classmate a procedure, of our choosing, in a step-by-step manner, in front of the class, then the student would have to perform the procedure with minimal assistance. After class, I asked the instructor if I could teach a classmate how to break down and reassemble a shotgun.

"Sure. Bring the shotgun to my office at the beginning of the day, unloaded and broken down. Assemble it for the class, then teach your lesson. At the end of the day, stop by and get your shotgun. What kind is it?"

"Mossberg 600."

"I have an Ithaca 37."

We didn't get permission, we didn't feel guilty, nor did we feel a need to notify anyone, including the principal. We just did it, and my classmates thought it was very cool.

One humorous note: My student (i.e. plant) was an experienced hunter, well-acquainted with shotguns, so the lesson went perfectly and I earned an A. :-)

[Charles Martel]

My high school had a NJROTC program and one of the offices assigned to the RTOC instructors was used as an armory for the rifle team. In fact, the room had U.S. Navy insignia on the door, and the word ARMORY painted in military stencil.

Not only did we lock our personal firearms in there during the day, there was a supply of Winchester 52D and Mossberg M44 target rifles (surplus training rifles from DCM / US Army inventory). Those Winchesters were *sweet*.

There was no range on the grounds, but the local Navy Reserve Center had a 50-foot indoor range, and it was nearby. Nowadays, the .22s are all gone and the old Navy Reserve Center is closed. There's still a rifle team, but they now compete with airguns. Surprisingly, they now use a portable backstop and utilize the school's cafeteria area for practice. Better than nothing, I suppose.

The days when a box of .22 ammo sitting on a student's desk didn't result in the S.W.A.T. team being called are certainly gone.

[weezel]

In the '60s, while in grade school, my brother won one of those candy selling contests. He had a choice of prizes, one being a 22 rifle, which he chose, and brought home on the school bus.

[weezel]

In the '60s, while in grade school, my brother won one of those candy selling contests. He had a choice of prizes, one being a 22 rifle, which he chose, and brought home on the school bus.

[Thunder90]

The High schools there also want to drop JROTC because the high schools have "Concerns" (Leftist reasoning) about it.

[Myrddin]

I think we need to return to mandatory hunter safety training in the schools. That would decrease firearm accidents. The current trend of school staff to pee their pants at the mention of a firearm is ridiculous.

I would favor an indoor range that was available as a shared resource for public school students to do their shooting proficiency skills, then open as a "for profit" public range on evenings and weekends. Trying to maintain a good range on each school campus is an expensive chore. I don't think it could maintain a viable level of utilization from paying customers to keep it as a self supporting resource.

[Charles Martel]

In the '60s, while in grade school, my brother won one of those candy selling contests. He had a choice of prizes, one being a 22 rifle, which he chose, and brought home on the school bus.

You reminded me... before I bought my first car (Junior year), there were quite a few occasions when I rode the public bus home after a match. Nobody seemed to care about the presence of my target rifle, which was unmistakable in its hard case plastered with NRA bumper stickers.

[rock58seg]

We carried 22.s to and from grade school so we could hunt coming and going to school. Stacked (leaned) them in a rear corner during the school day.

[Dead Corpse]

While I agree that todays America isn't all it should be, why can't we get it back? Are we too civilized? Have we been completely disarmed and run out of options? Should we all just roll over and die?

One person in the right place at the right time can make all the difference. Who knows, maybe YOU are that person. Maybe I am.

We'll never know if we never TRY.

[absolootezer0]

you didn't goto schoo in mid-michigan did you? i had a teacher that did the same thing. when he taught revolutionary and civil war periods in history, he'd come in with a couple different outifts, and different weapons. he'd even managed to get permission for some of us to load and shoot them outside on one occasion.
and what's surprising is, i had him in the mid90s.