Bought a Ruger .22 auto at age 14 with paper route money. Put $37.95 plus tax on the counter and took it home on my bicycle. Passed it on to my step daughter a few years ago.
In elementary school, boys could attend *rifle club* after school. It was a sport shooting program. My brother carried his .22 LR to school for that day....left it standing up in the coat room.
Depending on how *strict* your teacher was....either you kept your ammo in your pocket....or put it on her desk until dismissed for the program in the school basement.
We kids were raised with guns and the ability to *plink* anytime...and I was always very jealous of the boys, that girls were excluded from this target practice. Don’t recall who ran the program, civil marksmanship, maybe?