As we have been told, the cause of all of the current shootings is ‘the easy availability of guns.’
Well let me let everyone in on a little secret:
GUNS WERE ONE HELL OF A LOT MORE AVAILABLE DURING THE 1950'S THEN THEY ARE TODAY.
Most of the households back then had a father that had been in World War II. There were three M1 Garands in my neighborhood alone. One owner would load up all the kids in the block and take us out to the range to shoot his. Many houses had a 1911 Colt or some kind of wheel gun. None were locked up, and most were loaded.
And if you wanted to buy a gun, who here remembers, “Service Armament”? They were one of many MAIL ORDER gun companies. Just a money order and the Postman walked right up to your door and delivered.
My Dad said if I made all Bs in my sophomore year I could buy a pistol.I picked and Astra 9mm (I thought it looked neat, but it is really a poor design). I filled out all the paperwork and saved my money. To make a long story short, I still have the gun, and somewhere I may even still have the box it came in, addressed to me - a 15 year old.
If easy availability of guns was the problem, the 50’s should have seen daily school blood baths. It didn't. And that alone PROVES that the availability of guns has NOTHING to do with the causes of the current madness.
If you had said let’s take God out of the school system you would have to say, “how are you going to guard against the onslaught of the enemy?”
I remember one shooting at school in the fifties. A guy brought his shotgun to Massapequa HS and killed some other guy over a girl. The teacher who disarmed him was Alex Baldwin Sr.
Yes, those were the good old days for firearms. My dad owned over 200 firearms at that time, all easily available in the home and you know what? With the exception of when we went out hunting or to the range or to clean them, I knew if I ever put my hands on one, they would stay on them...no joke, I just knew better.
The rest of the 50’s were pretty calm to, once the Korean War was over. Schools were places to learn, not day care centers. I went to a local church grade school taught by mostly nuns. We were praised when we did well, and if we did something wrong, well, I always felt the principal nun was hiding out from Nuremberg for having run a concentration camp. Frightening woman. I don’t recall the police ever coming to school except to hand out the safety patrol badges and gather them up at the end of the school year. A big night out was when the family went to the movies. One TV, a few channels and no filth on it. My parents decided what was on and when we went to bed. Yes, “go outside and play” was a daily thing, no hanging about the house playing video games and the like. Touch football ran from october to March and baseball from April to October, either at the park or in the street. Water ballon fights and tag games....a wonderful time to be a kid.
Meanwhile, we had chores to accomplish too. Mostly helping out but nonetheless we were involved. Minor plumbing, painting, car maintenance, cleaning game both fish and foul. We were taught how to do things besides checking Angie’s list.