I also live in an area with a large "hunting" culture. Under zero tolerance, I believe a fire arm is a fire arm and have discussed this with students. The hunting rifle drawings were often in their sketchbook assignments. I explain that I have never been hunting in my life, and ask them to create an illustration of the focus and tension they feel when the scope is on a deer. The hunting catalogues have all the pictures of rifles anyone needs to see, tell me about your actual experiences. I had several students who became much more involved in their sketch assignments when they could connect them to their hunting interests.
Heather Alexander