I remember being in high school and shotguns in the rack of a pickup’s back window was a common sight. We never did have any school shootings but your usual amount of boys getting into fights.
And you left the windows down and/or the truck was unlocked and it was still there at the end of school.
Yes. High school in mid-80s northern plains. Lots of rifles, shotguns and bows in unlocked vehicles in the parking lot. However, I don’t remember any pistols? I didn’t have one until my 20s. Only remember a few fights over those years but we were all from pretty similar circumstance. A kid in my older brothers class said he was “bringing a knife” to a fight but did not. Received a Ruger 10/22 for my 12th birthday (and an Ithaca 37 for 13th) and spent many unsupervised days with it. Ammo was cheap and the Coast to Coast hardware store sold it.
Yes, it’s hard to disguise a shogun, however. With the parents there, school officials should have asked parents to look in backpack. A search by parents, not a search by law enforcement. That alone could have prevented THAT day’s horror. Wouldn’t have prevented future problems.
I remember those days in the 1950s and ‘60s.
I also remember when all the kids carried folding knives and at recess we would set around and whet them. Never stabbed anyone but they came in useful to cut string and such in AG class.
Only one hillbilly tough carried a small hidden hunting knife, but he soon dropped out of school.
Only time I saw a knife pulled was in 1962 New Mexico when a Hispanic and Anglo boy faced off for a fight. Another Hispanic boy with a folding knife got behind the Anglo to attack if a fight commenced. It didn’t.