When I was a boy growing up in the wilderness of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the 1950s, we often carried our .22s on the bus and stuck them in the corner of the “cloak room” so we could shoot ground hogs after school. I don’t remember any mass killings although the teachers would beat the tar out of you for misbehaving in class!
Here in southern Michigan we couldn’t carry them on the bus in the 80s but if we drove they could stay in our cars or if a parent brought us they had to stay in the principal’s office.
until the 1980’s rifle clubs and teams a varsity sport were common in high schools...both boys and girls participated