Here's that NRA article on the Enfield L39A1. I'll bet it would be a lot of fun to shoot.

Bill, a few years ago I bought 3 of the Martini BSA cadets in 22 from SKB. I sold 2 to jimatcat but did some extra work on the one w/ the bull bbl. for my grandson. D+T + mounted a 4X. He was told that he gets his 1st 22 when he's 10, (he was 9) but he kinda rolled his eyes + said, "Well, I'm almost 10". Anyway about that time his new step dad bought him a new 243 so PAPA was out of the picture. No matter, there are always more youngsters out there to appreciate these things. God, I certainly hope so.

If a kid tells a teacher he likes guns here, he will be referred to mental hygiene and they will call his parents.
It ain't like 1956 when we could take guns to school.

You got that right! I remember taking my 22 to school, leaving it with the teacher so we could "hunt" rabbits on the way home.

It really is a shame. Every big bank in NYC had a range in the sublevel. I'm in the old Chemical building and there used to be a range below the car parking levels.

My Dad was on the high school rifle team. Their range was in the school basement. I still have the rifle he used .

When I was in high school in Richmond, VA, in the early 1960's, I turned a surplus M98 Mauser into a sporting rifle in shop class. Cut off and crowned the barrel, turned the post handle down, drilled and tapped the receiver for scope mounts, etc. Kept the rifle in my shop class locker throughout the project. My shop teacher was a gun enthusiast, and mentored and helped me with the project. Can't even imagine doing such in any HS in any state in the country now. What a shame!

When I started high school in the 60's at age 12 or 13 we had the first three weeks of school doing military training which was in vogue in some high schools back then. Our school headmaster was an ex British Army Major who had been through the 2nd World War. We were all issued smaller versions of the then NZ Army scratchy old serge uniforms, shorts and battle jackets and regular force soldiers put us through drill training and the use of the SMLE 303 and Bren gun. We also did grenade throwing, using flash bangs, and bayonet practice. All this took part in the school grounds except for live firing the SMLEs and Bren guns which was done up the hill from our school in a gravel pit beside our local airfield.

Our headmaster also used to use a sawn-off SXS 12g hammer gun with blanks for starting our annual athletics events at the town sports field a few blocks from our school. He forgot the shotgun one year and myself and another boy were sent back to school to pick up the gun and blanks from his office and bring it to the sports field, carrying it there completely openly. I can't recall now but I imagine we probably pretend shot all the birds and cats we spied on the way. The old sawn-off just had the grip and barrels shortened to the end of the splinter so was virtually a double barrel pistol.

Yes those were the days when men were men and boys were men too.

I shot on the high school rifle team in Salina, Kansas. Our range was in the basement under the cafeteria. I would get the key from the coach and practice during Study Hall period. We would take guns to school in the trunks of our cars and go hunt after school. When I graduated in 1968, I went to Wichita State University and shot on the rifle team for 4 years. The range was in the basement under one of the big auditorium-size classrooms. I don't think those times will come again.