When I was in high school in Georgia in the late 1970's it was common for guys to have their shotguns or deer rifles in their car or truck at school during deer season because a lot of guys would hunt before school. All the guys I went to school with carried pocket knives, too. Nowadays, try carrying a pocket knife to school and you'll wind up in jail. Carry a gun in your vehicle and they'll put you under the jail.....
When I was a Freshman I took my .22 Rifle to school to tap a couple of holes in it for a scope. The Principle saw me with it as I was walking into shop class. He asked to see it so I handed it to him, he looked it over put it too his shoulder and sighted it out the window. Handed it back and asked what I was going to do with it in shop.
I told him about adding the scope and he smiled and handed me the weapon back and told me to make sure I could still use the iron sights while the scope was attached, then he left.
If I were a student today and did that the FBI would have been called in and I would be featured on CNN as a nut job gun lover who was going away to prison for life.
In the mid-sixties when I was in the 8-9th grade we would bring our shotguns to school on the bus. We had to leave our ammo at the office, but we got to keep our guns in our lockers. After school we’d go hunting pheasants with our buddies. This was in Kalifornia, Bear River Jr. High in Wheatland. It was a rural area with wheat and rice fields that provided great pheasant/duck hunting. Some kids even rode their horses to school. Things sure have changed.