Puts your Guns on the Table

I'm often shocked when I hear that a student was caught with a gun at school; Or that a student was arrested for bringing a gun to school. I'm shocked because when I grew up in the 80's, alot of kids brought guns to school. It was normal. I remember being in JHS, and watching a kid pull a gun out in the cafeteria. Then another kid said "thats a puny gun", and pulled out a 9mm glock. Everyone oohed and aahhed. It was just show and tell.
In high school, and keep in mind I went to the elite Brooklyn Tech, there were plenty of guns. There were at least a dozen gangs, and hundreds of gangmembers. Quite a few of these guys brought guns to school regularly. I often felt that I needed a gun on the subway. Once, on the senior ski trip, my roommate brought a 44 caliber hand gun. It was cool.
No one ever actually used the gun. Sometimes, they didn't have bullets. But knowing that there was a likelihood that the other person had a gun made you less likely to pull yours out.
These days, it seems that only the mentally ill have guns at school. No one normal brings a gun to school anymore. And now, schools have security and metal detectors. Twenty years ago you just walked in to school, knives, guns, brass knuckles, etc. Kids used to fight other kids. These days, they are shooting at the system, which includes kids they do not know, teachers, professors, etc. Twenty years ago, kids got into real fights, against other kids that they knew personally, and had arguments over girls, boys, name calling, etc. These fights were 30 seconds, someone pulled out a gun, everyone ran.
I look at Virginia Tech, SJU, Columbine, and see kids fighting the system. Its so different. Its overall safer now, but more crazy. I never worried about a lone gunman randomly shooting me or my classmates. I was concerned that I might accidentally step on someone's sneakers on a crowded subway, and that might lead to trouble.
Its just very different today. I really don't follow the news anymore. Its often crass, depressing, and draining. The media plays on fear and sells advertising based on fear content. I worked for an NBC news affiliate and spent 4 years writing in high school and college newspapers, and now I avoid the news. The news is that the more things change, the crazier things get.