So did I. In the '50s lmost every boy in my neighborhood had a rife by the time he was 12 years old, and a bow and arrow long before that. We'd spend all day in the woods hunting crows, and squirrels, or just shooting whatever, and then come back at dark. I can remember they had barrels of surplus WWII rifles at the hardware store or in Pep Boys, and anyone could buy one just like you might buy a bag of nails. I grew up within 25 miles of Washington D.C.
We ran all over the woods behind our neighborhood with BB guns and were fishing and swimming in a strip mining lake that was probably 150 ft deep in the middle. It scares me now to think back about it. LOL! We rode our bikes a half mile up a 4 lane highway to the Neisner’s five and dime to buy candy. Nobody died, nobody got snatched. No problems. But it was a different time.