I remember when I was in junior high school, around 1950, their was contest to sell magazines. I sold enough to get a hunting knife which I received at school. I carried it around school all day and showed it off to my buddies. No problems from anybody including teachers.
When I was in high school in the sixties, I was taking a speech class that required us to do a speech using visual aids. One of the guys decided to do his speech on his shotgun. Nobody batted an eye or cared at all.