I have no links, but I can tell you what I heard from my grandfather. Basically, yes, they took guns to school. Everyone did. It wasn't considered abnormal at all. They never had any problems with school shootings either. I guess if everyone has a gun, you'd end up dead pretty fast if you tried to start anything. After school, they'd go hunting and try to shoot something for dinner that night. If they couldn't get anything, their family might go without dinner that night.

I believe he lived in a fairly rural area though. I assume things were different in the cities.

You would not find it insane if you had spent a lot of time in the southern USA.

For a "guns-in-school" story just Google "University of Virginia John Davis shot".

The TL;DR; is that on November 12, 1840, a rowdy bunch of college students were drinking and shooting (as usual), and rode up to a professor and shot him. While tragic, this eventually paved the way for really, really entertaining college admissions tours that often feature a full re-enactment of the scene.

> To what end, food on the table ?

Yes. People don't usually shoot rabbits, birds, and squirrels for self defense, you know. :-)