Did you have access to guns when you were in high school?

[milestogo]

i.e., if you were angry about something could you have gone to school with a gun?

57 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Guns at home, and YES I had access
	38 (67%)
	We had guns at home, but I had NO access
	1 (2%)
	NO there were no guns at home
	17 (30%)
	OTHER
	1 (2%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[EYESORE 9001]

1. I had access to guns at all times

but I can truthfully say that I never once gave consideration to taking a weapon to school for the purpose of settling a score.

[MissMillie]

2. My dad had a hunting rifle and a hand gun

They were kept in a locked cabinet and the ammo was locked elsewhere.

My Dad is 90 now, and wants to give the weapons to my brother who lives in the next state over. My brother has been working w/ law enforcement in both states to assure that the weapons are transported across state lines legally.

[forthemiddle]

3. In my rural community

We had guys that would go out deer hunting during gun season, and come straight to school from the field. If they missed first period, we figured they got their deer.
As soon as last period bell rang, they were in their trucks (with guns in the cab), and off they would go.
That week, in late November, had more blaze orange attire at school than all of Cabelas. We never once had a school shooting, or even a threatened shooting.
That was in the 80’s.

[milestogo]

9. I'm trying to figure out what is different now.

Never even heard of this happening until Columbine, and that was in 1999.

[forthemiddle]

15. I'm not blaming video games

But I am going to blame technology, to a point.
Today everything is so impersonal. Do you know what I mean? Today kids talk through computers, either texting, social media, etc. I honestly believe that we have a produced a populace of people (kids, and adults included) that have a lack of empathy.
I know this is way too simplistic, and I really am not a great communicator of what I’m thinking, but the social media society has made us all internet warriors, and for some kids that manifests itself into thinking that to commit a school shooting isn’t really reality. They have a grandiose idea of having their face and name splashed over the internet, and they will finally be recognized.
The video games tie into this by making shooting someone impersonal.
So while for the vast majority of kids, playing those violent video games, or spending the vast majority of their time on the internet is not a big problem, for a tiny amount of them it is a huge problem.
And for those kids, bullying, and the access to firearms, will set off a horrible chain reaction.

[LeftInTX]

23. School shootings happened in the 80s

They seemed to mirror "going postal" and other mass shootings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olean_High_School_shooting--This one happened in 1974...I just don't remember it at all..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States_(before_2000)

[Klaralven]

41. History of School Shootings in the United States

1700s
The earliest known United States shooting to happen on school property was the Pontiac's Rebellion school massacre on July 26, 1764, where four Lenape American Indian entered the schoolhouse near present-day Greencastle, Pennsylvania, shot and killed schoolmaster Enoch Brown, and killed nine or ten children (reports vary). Only two children survived.

https://www.k12academics.com/school-shootings/history-school-shootings-united-states

The first that I recall as a mass shooting was:

August 1, 1966 University of Texas Massacre Charles Whitman climbs atop the observation deck at the University of Texas-Austin, killing 16 people and wounding 31 during a 96-minute shooting rampage.

[Demsrule86]

4. My Grandpa who lived with us locked his guns up except for an old musket which I doubt could

even fire hanging above the fireplace. However, whether he locked them up or not, none of us would have dared touch one...we were not even allowed to point toy guns at each other when playing 'war' or old west...other childhood games. We were taught gun safety under Grandpa's supervision and how to fire a gun, clean a gun...what not to do with a gun... one brother hunted but the rest of us couldn't stand it...

[BlueTsunami2018]

5. My dad was a cop, so yeah, there were guns in the house.

His service revolver and his personal gun. But we were taught from an early age how they worked and never to touch them outside of his presence. He always had them hidden anyway but we would not have touched them. I broke a lot of rules as a kid but that was one my brother and I took seriously.

I suppose I could have smuggled one into school if I wanted to but that thought never occurred to me. If anyone bothered me I just fought them or, if I didn’t think I had a chance, avoided those people. No one did this stupid shit when I was a kid, you either took the abuse, evaded trouble the best you could, or you fought your bullies.

Outside of legitimate home defense, guns are a coward’s tool.

[Glorfindel]

6. Oh, yes...plenty of guns

Hunting rifles, shotguns, and at least two pistols. I never once considered taking a gun to school, though.

[brewens]

7. Rifles and shotguns. I played sports all the time or probably would have been one of the

guys going hunting after school. A lot of my friends did. I'm in Idaho. The only issue is getting out of the city limits in about any direction. If you have to drive more than a half-hour to find a spot to hunt, you don't know what you're doing. At least for deer and birds.

[NewHendoLib]

8. no one in our family even held or touched one, never mind owned one.

still, to this day, my wife, my girls

we loathe the filthy things

[LakeArenal]

49. Guns are not filthy.

Saying all the guns nonviolent people have are filthy is unfair from someone who has never touched a gun.

Filthy is as filthy does. Mr Lakes guns were well respected and cleaned.

However your filthy comment is not about the cleanliness of the guns is it?

[NewHendoLib]

51. You going to tell me how I feel about my guns?

Last edited Sat Oct 9, 2021, 01:12 PM - Edit history (1)

[LakeArenal]

52. You telling me that all guns are filthy?

So you do mean cleanliness? I doubt that.
But it’s up to you to double down on it.

Someone who never touched a gun?


Not even sure what an un is.

[NewHendoLib]

57. fixed. I loathe guns. Period.

[LakeArenal]

58. Now that's an opinion I can understand

[Deuxcents]

10. My dad was a cop

On the beat cop until high school when he was promoted to detective. Me and my sisters were well aware of his weapons and he taught us to respect them by taking us to the shooting range with him. My mom also had her handgun. Never once did we “play” with them or even consider taking them. He taught us the laws concerning guns and there was never a problem. I think we feared him more than those guns!

[Klaralven]

11. The world history teacher was a Korean War vet and an officer in the Guard

When we were studying WW II, he brought an assortment of weapons from the armory, including a bazooka (no live bazooka rounds though).

The Phys Ed class used the armory for gun safety training and for target practice.

[randr]

12. A good friend and I would go duck hunting very early before school, junior high

We would walk into school with our guns and ducks if we were lucky and put them in our lockers until classes were over.

[Tetrachloride]

13. 1 shotgun, not loaded nor locked. i never saw it loaded or displayed.

It was in a closet. presumably to kill rabid animals.

hunters generally not allowed on the land.

[DFW]

14. My senior year, I was on the rifle team.

We had a so-so record against other local (Massachusetts/Connecticut) schools. Both guns and ammo were meticulously stored and accounted for. No one could get near them without multiple members of the faculty for supervision. The jocks used to make fun of us on Sundays, when we all had our matches with other schools. We would then invite them to have a match-up--them with their "equipment," and us with "ours." Some of them didn't know if we were being serious or not, and left us alone

[panader0]

62. At my private school on Oahu, ROTC was mandatory for seniors.

Every Wednesday afternoon found us in full uniform, brass polished and shouldering our M-1 Garand rifles.
After drilling on field, we had to stand in line and return our issued rifles. It took a while. On one particular
Wednesday, my friend and I knew there was a good southern swell. We could see the surf from the third
floor of Castle Hall. So after drill, we stashed our M-1s in our sports lockers and headed to the beach.
The next morning we were called to the senior dean and two FBI guys were there wanting to know what
we had done with our guns. I got in a lot of trouble.

[redstatebluegirl]

16. My Dad had shotguns on the farm.

They were used to keep predators away from the livestock. They were locked up in a gun cabinet in the barn. We knew how to use them but I never had to. I have never had one myself.

[zeusdogmom]

17. Guns available but for the most part, they weren't of much interest to me

Every family had guns. (farm country). In the fall, before hunting season, there were gun safety classes after school. Couple of the local men were the instructors. Think it was just a reminder to the newer hunters to be careful. I remember going simply because there were guys there. Hey cut me some slack, I was a young teenage girl. 😂. And yes I remember some of the instructions. Do I have a gun now? No. Did I ever go hunting? No, but I cleaned a lot pheasants and ducks my dad and his brothers shot.

No one brought guns to school. Never, ever felt unsafe. I wish that environment now for every kid in every school in this country. Sadly we are so far beyond that. So far. At times the sorry state of our country keeps me awake at night.

[Crepuscular]

18. Yes

I remember taking a shotgun to school in 7th grade for a class demonstration on how to properly clean a shotgun. Brought it on the bus to get to school that morning, no problem. No ammo though. That was in the early 70's in the Midwest. In college, we kept both shotguns and rifles in our dorm room closets, for hunting. Had to register them with campus safety to have them on campus but could keep them in our rooms. Early 1980's era. Half of my Fraternity hunted, I suspect there were 30 -40 guns in our Fraternity house, never was any kind of an incident involving them. Couldn't have pistols on campus, though, back then long guns were common but not that many people owned pistols. This was prior to the widespread availability of semi-automatic pistols which occurred starting in the late 1980's/early 1990's, when police departments converted over from carrying revolvers.

[Demsrule86]

34. I've seen them here forever. What difference does it make?

[LiberatedUSA]

39. They are...depending.

I am surprised this one is still up.

The rule is observed inconsistently.

[sarisataka]

63. No but as the rule eventually said

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"

[dameatball]

20. My brother and I each had a bolt action Marlin .22 and my Dad had a .38 revolver. Taking any firearm

or even a knife to school was pretty much unheard of, but I assume a classmate or two had something they kept in their truck or car. In those days it just wasn't considered all that cool to have a firearm. No one was impressed by any faux badassery, plus you could kiss any extracurricular activities goodbye if you got caught with any kind of weapon at school. I also think it helped that we didn't have the shrieking 2nd amendment crowd making its presence known and no "stand your ground" bullshit.

[marble falls]

21. Got my first shotgun at 14 and had NRA gun safety classes in Jr HS ...

... over 55 years ago, when the NRA did not get into politics past cooperating with officials on natural resource conservation and game protection.

We always had firearms in the house.

I got rid of mine right around the time I joined DU. I believe the current "understanding" of the 2nd Amendment is bushwa. I believe we have the right to own arms and that it doesn't derive from the second amendment.

However: guns and gun violence threatens public safety and it constitutes a public health threat when one of the top five causes of death for children comes from a firearm. This is a national emergency and we need to disarm.

I've given up mine with the intent to surrender them until this nation gets its brains wrapped around the violence and making progress to stop it.

I've come to know this will not happen in whatever many years I have. I have kept my Daisy CO2 pistol to look at and remember plinking cans with my daughters. They had popguns as children. I told them firearms are tools and not toys. That If I saw them aiming at a pet, or another person, I'd disarm them ... and did. As a kid I had more toy guns and 'shot' too many other kids to count.

I also remember answering to others who said toy guns made for more violence: girls had baby dolls and that didn't seem to be making for less child abuse: as if apples equal oranges, as if women were the sole source of child abuse. Some of the things I've said embarrass me still.

No one in my family has firearms except a nephew, who "is different" about weapons, the government, foreigners ... etc.

[Hugin]

40. "NRA gun safety classes"

Wow... A phrase that's become an oxymoron.

When I saw the OP topic, I really had to think for a minute. Yes, I've had access to guns my entire life. But, I've also had access to a toolbox full of useful tools such as hammers, saws, and drills. The drills being far more effective at making holes, by the way.

In HS I had many other much more important priorities, I suppose.

[marble falls]

42. I had a lot of priorities in HS -school paper, MOB (mobilization against the war), NFL ( National ..

Forensic League), Latin Club, after school job, ....

I think gun safety classes are important if we're not going ban them. I think there'd be a lot fewer gun deaths if a kid's introduction to them wasn't from finding one improperly/illegaly put away.

[Hugin]

45. I agree that classes should be offered.

If not mandatory in the current environment.

The most important gun safety lesson I learned was from my g-father who took me aside as a wee-un and said, "Guns are never safe." This from a man who'd hunted for sustenance for over 40 years.

It was really brought home right after HS when I had to console a close friend who'd just witnessed their cousin, who they'd grown up with as a sibling, struck in the heart by a rifle discharging when the cousin dropped it while putting it on a rack.

[70sEraVet]

22. As a child, I couldn't even have TOY guns.

Raised by my grandparents, and they were quite the pacifists. No tv shows that glorified the military, except Hogan's Heroes and McHale's Navy.

[Johnny2X2X]

24. I'm still not mature enough for guns

And I’m pushing 50.

[LeftInTX]

25. No guns in our home

[Taraman]

26. Growing up in the West, of course we had guns

My father practiced gun safety always, every time, and growing up we watched that.

We reloaded our own ammo, which was fun melting the lead, crimping, priming, and did target shooting. Killed a lot of tin cans.

He wrote a letter of resignation to NRA when they started focussing on home defense, I think in the '60s.

I haven't fired a gun in a long time now, though. They are awfully loud. There are now too many people outdoors in the West and it's dangerous.

[hunter]

46. What's the West got to do with it?

In my Wild West family fools and their guns were soon parted.

My great grandmothers were all fierce women of the Wild West who considered most men fools. My wife's Native American / Wild West family had similar matriarchal traditions.

Women hunted, women owned property. Their husbands tended to be dreamers.

My dad and my father-in-law both served in the military during the Korean War and it was just the luck of the draw they didn't end up in Korea. My wife's dad was a Navy medic assigned to the Marines. My dad was a nearsighted Radar O'Reilly medical clerk. No guns. (My father-in-law was used as a guinea pig in atomic bomb testing.)

My ancestors ended up in the Western U.S.A. because they were Pacifists and other sorts of religious heretics. They were all here in the U.S.A. during the Civil War but they were so far out West it hardly affected them at all.

Two bullshit racist narratives are "Southern Pride" and "Guns of the Wild West."

Killing and oppressing people who are not white is nothing to be proud of. Vigilantism is nothing to be proud of.

Hell, shooting bears and wolves is nothing to be proud of.

Gun fetishes are disgusting.

I'm with you about hunting. It's become more dangerous. There are too many fools out there with guns. The density of them is much greater than it used to be. Sometimes you hear automatic weapon fire out in the countryside. Who needs a military style weapon to hunt?

[CrispyQ]

27. We lived on a farm & had a shotgun & a rifle in the back porch closet.

I was told hands off & I kept my hands off. Lots of kids had access to guns back then.

[Danmel]

28. Nope. Not a chance

I grew up in Brooklyn. Jewish girl with a Holocaust survivor dad who never wanted to see a gun again.

[rickyhall]

29. My dad had rifles and shotguns, my mom carried a .38 Special in her purse and I had a .410.

My uncle killed himself with one my dad's guns before I was born.

[Midnight Writer]

30. No guns in our home, but plenty of access to guns through my friends.

We used to go out shooting a lot, and a lot of the kids had guns in their cars.

I never hunted. But we'd go down to the creek or out in the woods and shoot at targets and tin cans a lot.

[Devil Child]

31. Yes, no stigmatization of firearms in our home growing up

My parents provided my first introduction to shooting about age 7-8.

[Dial H For Hero]

32. I fired a real handgun (with blanks) on stage during my high school's performance of Oklahoma back

in the 1970's. It was my father's Ruger Blackhawk .357 magnum. This was after getting approval from the director, one of the school's teachers.

One can imagine the reaction today....

[48656c6c6f20]

33. Never in high school

We kept them at home.

[Ocelot II]

36. My dad had guns for hunting - a rifle and a couple of shotguns. They weren't locked up,

but they were kept in the back of his closet and we had strict instructions never to touch them. So we didn't. I suppose I could have got ahold of them to shoot up my high school, if I'd had any idea how to load and shoot them but I'd have had to take them on the school bus so someone would have noticed. As much as I hated high school it never occurred to me to shoot it up. Nobody did in those days.

[madville]

37. I had my own gun cabinet in my bedroom

Starting when I was about 12. I had a .410 shotgun, a couple of .22 rifles and a Winchester .30-30. We would usually grab a gun and hit the woods looking for squirrels. I was deer hunting with a .30-30 rifle by myself starting when I was 9 years old, got two bucks in two days that year. Used to also have a .22 or deer rifle in my truck sometimes at the high school because I would go hunting before and after school.

It was a different time and kids were raised different back then though, before violence was promoted and glamorized in the music some listen to and video games many play.

[Paladin]

38. Plenty of guns, plenty of teen-age anger.

It just never occurred to me to take guns to high school for any purpose, peaceful or violent. Different times...

[Hotler]

43. Single parent home just mom and I, no guns except BB gun.

If I wanted one I think mom would have let me. I was in Boy Scouts and had firearms training/safety. Hell, I think firearms training/safety was an after school elective back in 1970's along with fly tying.

Motorcycles are what captured my interest and mom hated them with a passion. As long as I lived at home no motorcycles. BB guns, bottle rockets, fire crackers, even old school m80's she was fine with. Be careful is all she said.

Motorcycles, No God Damn way.

I miss you mom.

[Hugin]

48. Your mamma really loved you.

Recently I came to the stark realization that almost all of the scars on my body and the fact I can't have an X-ray taken no matter how small without someone asking, "Were you in a car accident?" could be directly related to either bicycles or later motorcycles. The balance being skiing.

So, yeah... For our generation. She was correct.

[BeckyDem]

44. No. Not any hunters and no guns for self defense.

[sanatanadharma]

47. No! No guns

My Dad came home from WW2 and got rid of his smallish gun and knife collection before my earliest memories (or so I am told).
He was a cook.

The horror of war can destroy bodies and minds and morals.
War horror can become addictive; giving up being a warrior can be difficult.
Occasionally pacifists are born.

Thank you, Dad.

[Shrek]

50. Just a 20-gauge shotgun I used for hunting

No handguns or rifles.

[Wicked Blue]

53. Just water pistols nt

[hack89]

54. My school had a shooting team. Nt

[LiberatedUSA]

60. Did anyone that got punched out go get one of those guns?

If not, what do you think has changed?

Like if you set a gun on the teacher’s desk in the 1950s and sat back and watched a kid beat another one, get off them and sit down, what are the chances the one beat up would get up and use that gun as revenge vs how teens would react now in 2021?

Seems like the culture has changed.

[multigraincracker]

55. In my high school, everyone was issued

a military M1 rifle, with no firing pin. It was inspected every week.

[JohnnyRingo]

56. I took a defused hand grenade to school in the 3rd grade.

Dad brought it home from WWII and we were playing war on the playground in the early '60s. The gym teacher finally came up and asked to see it. Told me not to bring it to school anymore.

Had a shotgun and a couple .22 rifles with bricks of ammo. We lived in the country so when I got older I was allowed to go out back and plink. My BB gun devastated my little brother's Deluxe Playmobile.

Never considered shooting anyone for any reason. I didn't like to hunt either because I don't like to decide when something dies.

[Polybius]

59. No guns, just some nunchucks and shuriken's, and perhaps some hand claws

Yeah, I wanted to be a ninja. That didn't work out.

[panader0]

61. When I was a kid my dad still had his Army-Air Force issued 1911 .45 caliber pistol.

All of the guys on the bombers carried one. Well, my mom was afraid that my brother or I would
shoot each other and made him get rid of it. I have never had anything more than a BB gun.

[Tink41]

64. Personally, I've never laid eyes on one. N/T

[hamsterjill]

65. High school.

In high school, every truck in the parking lot had a gun rack with two rifles in it. Most likely loaded. Never ever considered that might be a threat.

It was a different era.

[Maru Kitteh]

66. One gun was in the little cubby of my parent's headboard, shotgun

in the closet. I never touched either of them other than to move the shotgun to get to the Christmas paper. I absolutely could have grabbed either one any time I wished though.

[11 Bravo]

67. I had my own rifle. It was kept in a gun safe along with my Dad's rifle ...

several shotguns, and Dad's Navy-issued service .45.
When going hunting, I had access to the safe.

[sakabatou]

68. No guns. Only had a short staff.

[Sgent]

69. We had hunter education

including shooting practice as part of our PE curriculum in 7th grade in the 80's. Also in HS a lot of kids would go dove / deer hunting before school and have guns in their trucks.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

70. I grew in a then rural part of Texas

I had access to guns