Yup. Lots of hunting rifles, I cant' recall anybody having an AR or AK back then, though.
We used to dove hunt before and after school at every chance and e1 had their shotgun and shells in the parking lot. We could all shoot, too - like... shoot as opposed to spray and pray. Everybody knew safety and if someone wasn't safe there were issues with their teenage peers. That dynamic was healthy. City kids buying AR's is not.
I pretty much agree with this. It's a strange issue that cuts across party lines, too. Some kids (like me) just loved an adult trying to reason and logically solve issues instead of beating my ass. If I didn't have the deterrence of a spanking or a country ass-whipping/beat down, I'd have been unmanageable. Some kids are just that way, it's the way it is. I just cant' imagine what my crew and I would have done growing up without it and even then...
It also greatly mitigates the necessity of spanking if a kid gets it early as a baseline consequence for destructive conduct.
The critics of corporal punishment lump ALL kids in one group. I'll be the first to say some kids truly don't need it and it probably does more harm than good, but other kids... well, my gawd, you can reason with them all day long and might as well go beat your head against a wall. I've always thought all the studies that conclude spanking is harmful are too broad and general. Isolate the personality types and see how naturally wild-ass kids do with and without corporal punishment.
