Dane posts 'shocking' pic, America says 'hold my beer'
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK: A Danish parent was shocked to find a sign at their son's school showing that a "shooting range" was in the same building. However, when they shared a photo of the guidepost online, Americans reminisced how guns were commonplace in their schools back in the day.
Guns, in general, are not part of everyday society for the majority of the civilized world. The US, however, has a unique history with firearms and there was a point in time when society was rather comfortable having them around, so much so that schools offered formal training on gun safety and held rifle competitions. That said, the alarming number of school shootings in recent years has completely changed that outlook, reigniting polarizing debates about gun rights and school safety across the political aisle.
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It was once common for American children to be packed off to school with a rifle on their backs and return home safe and sound in the evening. Shooting clubs were, in fact, a mainstay of American high school life, with many ranges installed in the basements of new educational buildings in the first half of the 20th century. However, the culture is currently on a downward spiral. According to Charles Cooke, a senior writer at National Review, such clubs are "in their death throes, victims of political correctness, a willful misunderstanding of what constitutes 'gun safety,' and our deplorable tendency toward litigiousness."
'School' and 'shooting range' in the same building
"This sign is on the side of my son's school," the concerned Danish parent wrote alongside a photo posted on Reddit. "It says 'School' and 'Shooting range' and both are in the same building," they explained, possibly hoping to garner empathy from gun control advocates. Instead, the signage caused several American Redditors to take a walk down memory lane, reminiscing the times when guns weren't such a big deal.
"My high school (02 grad) used to have an indoor shooting range. They’ve since renovated the school and removed the range but we still have a rifle team, they just practice offsite now," one wrote. "Mine did too. Graduated in ‘11. Don’t know if it is still there, but I believe it was a varsity sport(?). This is in PA where we got a day off for the first day of deer season," added another user.
"My high school in California had a shooting range in the basement of the cafeteria. It was no longer in use (and almost nobody knew it was there) when I was going to school, which was 50 years ago, but apparently it's still there. Probably filled with boxes and old furniture, but still," someone else added.
Further, a person commented, "One of the schools near us had a shooting range, it was only shut down due to concerns with long-term lead build-up. But our elementary school was built over the bus garage that set off the smoke detectors all the time. No problems there!" "In Kentucky, we used to shoot 22s out back in elementary school, lol. I'm pretty confident we don't do that anymore, and that was.. the 90s," another Redditor recalled.
"A buddy of mine grew up in the Oregon town I live in now. He used to bring his shotgun with him to school and get a little duck hunting in on the way if he left early enough. He was telling me how one time his math teacher saw his gun propped up in his locker and asked about it. They talked guns and ducks for a little while, then went out shooting after school," yet another one chimed in.
Need for gun control
Despite the musings and fond memories, one cannot ignore the menace of school and mass shootings that have taken countless lives in recent years. There have been eight school shootings in the US that resulted in injuries or deaths this year alone. There have been 152 such shootings since 2018, and last year there were a record 51 school shootings – the most in a single year – per Education Week.
Meanwhile, the country has already surpassed 100 mass shootings in 2023, reaching the record by the first week of March, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot. According to the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey, there are about 120 guns for every 100 Americans and about 44% of adults live in a household with a gun. Further, an April 2021 Pew survey found that almost a third of US adults believe there would be less crime if more people owned guns. Furthermore, mass shootings continue to drive demand for more guns.
This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.