there was less gun crime back then.
there are a lot of factors that are different from back then. population growth, degredation of morals, etc.
If you put a 22 rifle on the shoulder of every 7th grader in the country (like we had back in the day), I highly doubt we'd all be high fiving, fishin at the ol watering hole.
Society has ripened and gone pretty rotten, dude.