I was talking to an old highschool friend last night and we were wondering what happened to the M14A1's we were issued in JROTC (1971-1974). Imagine that, live weapons in a highschool (with bolts and not demilled), we also had an on site smallbore range. On the rifle team I was issued the X40 bolt action (heavy bastard for a .22), plus we had the High Standard .22cal pistols. Now the funny thing is, we never had any school shootings or any other kind of violence (well, ok, the occasional fist fight over a girlfriend, but that was just normal business). Our M14's still had the selector switch except the switch it self was removed (on manuevers a bobby pin would fix that fairly quick! ). In 1976 they pulled the14's and replaced them with those toy M1903, no more .22cal anything; now it's all Air rifles. It kinda took the reality of the military out of the program, and really dumbed it down to Boy Scout level. Im not knocking the Boy Scouts, I was one once. But it really makes me angry that ol' Slick Willie had those M14's turned into soupcans and carbumpers. Now we can't get enough of em to supply our own troops and have to pay the high dollar prices of Springfield Armory to get more. I really enjoyed shooting the M14 (actually qualified Expert in my Junior year). Now most of them are scrap, you're probably driving one in your Subaru, Honda, Nissan, etc. I'd give my right arm for one (no wait, thats my shootin' arm) but you get the idea. The M16 series were ok once they got the screwups fixed (well except for that D**mned gas tube) gas pistons are the way to go! But it just wasn't the same, I liked the heft of the M14, you felt like you had a real rifle. Well, ok, the SAW version (M14A2E1) wasn't a big hit (pardon the pun) but it wasn't designed for that. It was designed to be a good solid reliable infantry rifle (don't recall too many failing in combat, do you?)

Ok, RANT mode off, sorry, I guess I'm just a .30cal kind of a guy!

This may belong in the ROTC forum, if so forgive me.

Hey, in AFJROTC we don't even get air rifles...

I feel your pain, I too was in JROTC. Grad. in 77 and our school still had the 14.But your point was clear we had no shootings.What is really wrong with us now that we are becoming more PC?

I think just about all crimes today are crimes of opportunity. People get murdered because, nine times out of ten, the they are going to be unarmed. Now, as there are criminals who are willing to kill cops and even to attempt to shoot it out with SWAT teams, there are a few who would knowingly attack an armed citizen over petty things, but with more armed people, he's going to have a much shorter streak of luck. People are less likely to go on shooting sprees and thrill killings when they know their pray might shoot back.

I'm in JROTC right now and all we have is M1s which we spin (but the friggin thing is cemented shut) and 1903s which we never are aloud to use. For the Marksmanship team we use little .17cal air rifles...

My mother's high school in suburban Detroit had a rifle club that shot real guns in the school basement well into the 60s w/o any problems at all. Obviously, this picture is from some time before that.