Oh how things have changed....

[SSN Vet]

My good friend and pastor has been an avid outdoorsman, hunter and trapper all his life. Recently, we had an informal gathering of guys shooting clays in another friends field and he told me this little anecdote about his growing up in Flint, Michigan. I thought it was very telling about how our society has changed and maybe worth sharing.

While in Jr. High School, all Stan wanted to do was hunt and in the fall, he'd hunt pheasant and quail after school every day. So in order to maximize his time in the field, he'd walk to school in the mornings with his shotgun and keep it in his locker. Then on the way home, his dog would meet him half way and they would head out into the field together (this story actually came up in the context of talking about dogs).

I asked him if he ever got in trouble for bringing his shotgun onto school property and he said everyone knew and no one cared. His prinicple would just tell him to make sure it was unloaded.

Oh, how things have changed !!!

 

[earplug]

School

Now even the dog has to be leashed.
Someone at our school complained about my dog that carries her leash on the way home after we drop our son off.

 

[EatBugs]

My father would tell me about how during drivers ed classes they would keep shotguns in the trunk of the drivers ed car. When they would see coyotes or groundhogs and such they would stop the car and shot it for the reward money.

 

[X-Rap]

When I was a kid a lot of us hunted and trapped. We would drive to school with shotguns, rifles, and pistols in our trucks and cars so we could maximize our time in the field morning and evening. Sometimes cleaning birds in the morning would cause us to be late or we would ditch after lunch to go hunting. Yes times have changed. When was the last time you saw a kid pulling off his waders in the school parking lot or ditching to go hunting?

 

[MCgunner]

As a kid, I was into duck hunting. The marsh I hunted was on the other side of a little town of about 12K, Freeport, Texas. I'd ride my little CT90 Honda (two wheeled jeep ) through town at 4AM with decoys on the back and shotgun on the fork rack I built in metal shop. Cops would just wave and smile as I rode through town with my 870 strapped on the rack in plain sight.

One afternoon, opening day of duck season, my buddy and I got permission to get out of school early to hunt ducks. My buddy's mom worked at the junior college and we put the guns and gear in her trunk. We got out about 1PM during home room, rode over on my bike and got the guns out of her trunk right there in the parking lot and put 'em on the rack, grabbed the deeks and such and were off.

Yup, times have changed. I grew up with weapons and never once thought of using them on a classmate or something despite the fact that I was always getting in fist fights with bullies and such. I was kind of nerdy, so got picked on by the losers, but would end it for a while by kicking one of their butts. I was a big kid, in athletics, and seemed like the fat guy bullies could have picked on someone who couldn't smash their face, ya know? They seemed to lack intellegence, LOL. You can't tell me the social situation in high schools has changed since then. The roll of drugs has changed a LOT, but not general social situations. There have always been bullies, there have always been fights, there have always been guns after school and hunting and shooting. I used it as therapy as a kid much as I do now. I go out and plink or I go hunting and I'm renewed. I NEVER thought of shooting any antagonist.

Yes, I think it's the society, not the social situations, that have perverted our kids. All the gun control in the universe won't fix the problem and you'd have to have the IQ of an ant to think it would. The problem is with society and what all the liberalism has done to it since the 60s. Hell, they even have a DAY CARE for students with babies at the high school here, now! Instead of instructing our kids in abstinence, we give 'em condoms. But, you know what, watch MTV sometime, get on some of the web sites kids hang out at. It's no damned wonder they're little perverts now days, what with the natural hormone thing going on at that age and the tolerance given to such behaviors they exhibit in the pop world and at places like MTV. I think the roll of the media is huge in this problem, but liberalism in general is the main culprit. JMHO, but I just know what I've seen in my life.

 

[Skoghund]

In the 60's i used to carry my shotgun to work on my bike so i could shoot the rabbits out in the fields. Do that today and the police armed response unit and a police helicopter would be on the case in a flash. Funny old world ain't it.

 

[Shawnee]

ROTFLMAO !!!

Thanks for the memories, Y'All !!!

Toting a scoped .243 around hunting woodchucks when I was 13 and having people just wave at me and go on unconcerned was about every Summer day for me back in the early 60s. As someone pointed out - about 90% of what I did without a care would bring in the Choppers and Homeland Security and the Criminal Psychologists and newspapers from at least four countries today.

Tell me again how this is "Progress".

 

[kudu]

It really wasn't that long ago in the mid eightys when I would drive into the high school with a couple guns in the gun rack of my pick-up. Before school was in session I would be skinning raccoons and muskrat in the bed and wash up before I went to class. Nothing was ever said at that time, but a couple years later it was unheard of to even have a gun in a vehicle at the same school..

 

[Mannlicher]

In the early 60's, I often brought a shotgun or .22 rifle in my car to highschool. After school, several of us, including a teacher or two, would walk the creek along the school, and shoot squirrels or rabbits.
I almost always stashed my S&W K38 in my locker during classes, picking it up on the way out.

 

[dfaugh]

Yeah, my buddies and I routinely took out guns to school, although we left them in the trunks, rather than bring them inside.

I grew up on a "dead-end" street w/ 40 houses, that was completely surrounded by many acres of woods and fields. My friends (that lived there) and I would go out hunting/shooting in the woods frequently. I lived the farthest from the area where we used to go, so I would head out the door with my gun, and "pick up" the others along the way, walking right up the street past all the other houses. By the time we got to the end we'd have 3-6 armed "kids" (14-18) ready to charge off into the fields. If you did that today they'd probably send a SWAT team!

 

[swampdog]

When is the last time you saw a kid riding his bike with a bb gun across the handle bars?
I took a young guy deer hunting last year that wanted to know if it was all right to take his hand held "gameboy" up in the stand with him.
I agree with the MTV sentiments expressed by others. You can't just blame the media and the liberal, federally financed education system, though. Blame the parents.

I recently had a rather heated discussion with a liberal, son of hippies on the subject of gun control. It almost came to blows. I mentioned that kids used to take their guns to school to hunt with in the afternoon and schools were much safer then. I mentioned that "an armed society is a polite society", and that children would probably be safer these days if they all received firearms training. He told me he didn't want his children growing up in a world with guns. Things went down hill from there.

Ironically, this guys name was "Freedom" and he is on probation for stabbing his stepfather. I told him it was a shame his stepdad wasn't a gun owner, he called me an ignorant redneck and we parted friends. It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.

 

[Rupestris]

I actually went to a High School IN detroit that had a 25 yard range in the basement. JROTC class would be held there. We had .22 trainer rifles that we shot once a month. The school had M1903's that we would drill with.

This was back in the mid 80's so it wasn't that long ago. When someone in their late 30's starts thinkin' about the "good 'ol days" , the sweeping changes to our freedoms are picking up steam.

 

[B.D. Turner]

Anyone have a clue as to what changed things from the way they were?
I am not that old and can remember keeping a rifle and a shotgun on the rack in the back window of the pickup in the school parking lot. Nothing was ever said. Yes I grew up before MTV and video games. I did have a ping pong game that could be played on tv (being an only child if I won I had also lost.)
I grew up watching SWAT, Adam12, Rockford Files, The Rookies, Gunsmoke, Wild World of Sports, Bonanza, Brady Bunch, Scooby Doo, Buggs Bunny and Hee Haw. I also grew up without cable tv, VCR's and a cell phone. I just don't understand some kid wanting to kill his teacher and other kids at his school.

 

[HankB]

Anyone have a clue as to what changed things from the way they were? . . . I just don't understand some kid wanting to kill his teacher and other kids at his school.

Prior to 1968, guns were freely available via mail order at prices that even at the time were cheap . . . at least for milsurp rifles, pistols, and ammo.

And school shootings were unheard of.

Today, guns are far less available . . . but there are more psychiatric drugs like Prozax, Luvox, and Ritalin being prescribed for students.

A LOT more.

It's difficult to find a homicidal student shooter who HASN'T been doped up with the blessing of some psychiatic "professional."

 

[S&Wfan]

Additionally, with satellite uplinks and other modern technology, CNN can be on the scene via a local station in mere minutes of trouble.

There are tens of thousands of schools in America, and today it seems there are a couple of kids out of millions of students each year who want their "15 minutes of fame" and are willing to bring guns in to shoot people.

The press didn't get a media opportunity at the Jr. High in Pearl, Mississippi back around the time of the Columbine shootings . . . since the Asst. Principal ran out to HIS car and ended the shooting fast with his .45ACP! He ended it before the LEOs arrived.

If the press wouldn't cover these things I suspect the problem would pretty much go away. Then again, if pigs could fly . . .

 

[JackOfAllTradesMasterAtNone]

Yes, times have changed.

I wish, for just part of the old days to be available for my boys.

I remember, -and I'm not near as old as many of you, We lived near the end of a dirt county road. There was no public right of way, so the school bus wouldn't come down our road, even though my step dad had a full turn around for his long-haul rig on our property. Plenty of room to turn the bus around for the five families with kids attending school. We still couldn't convince the school district to run the bus down our road.

So, we'd ride dirt bikes, or horses to the highway. We'd leave the bikes behind the country store. Unlocked. All day. Or the horses unsaddled turned out in a friend's pasture -behind the store. The saddles draped over the fence rails. Rifles in scabords. Most often a .22, but sometimes a lever gun of larger caliber if it was deer season or if one of us saw a cat recently.

Now, mind you, this isn't out in the middle of Colorado, the desolate Dakotas or even Montana. This is rural between Seattle and Olympia, WA. in the 70's.

So, as I grew up, moved to the big city, The gang bangers had heat. Well, many of us white boys were determined to stay alive. A good many of us had guns in our cars too. We never once thought of a massacre at school. Never. Many of us, some that started life in the country, would skip school at one time or another during deer season to go hunt. Often taking someone that had never been hunting before. Man, even at a young age I was keeping our sport alive.

I now live rural, and know some of the kids in and out of school around here. It's dairy country. Quite often, I'll hear gun shots early in the morning when I'm out starting my truck for my morning commute. For the most part, I know who's shooting at the Coyotes before school. And 10 to 1, I don't doubt there's a rifle or two in many a students pickup at the local highschool any given day.

Am I nervous for when my teenagers will attend that school next year?

Not in the least. Not from the locals. Maybe from the local Mexicans. But not even the local tribe.

I hate to profile or be racist. But talks with my boys, we know what kid's parents are crack heads. Which kid is out of control and violent at school. The ones that ... Well, the Goth kids that aren't accepted by -anyone but themselves. Even in this rural church town, there are early teens using drugs. Drugs lead to thefts to support habbits. I only wish more gun owners around here would either put their guns in safes, or get rid of them.

We're a long ways away from when we used to just hang the guns in the back window of the truck. Or in the rack in the living room. Or just stand them up in the closet.

You're right, Times have changed.

-Steve

 

[308win]

Before I discovered that girls liked football players more than hunters I used to take my shotgun to school in the trunk of my car and as soon as school was out (3:45 IIRC) I was on my way to which ever field the doves or ducks were working. Might get lucky and get a pheasant or rabbit on the way in if in season.

We used to walk the drainage ditches jump shooting ducks in early November often in shirt sleeves. Usually always got a pheasant or two. If lucky enough to be hunting a field being harvested often got to ride the combine to shoot pheasant if shared take with farmer.

Doubt any of this would happen now. No pheasant let alone co-operating farmers.