Two young boys, 14 and 15 years of age, were arrested while shooting a zip gun in the vicinity of police target ranges in a eastern U.S. city. A third boy, aged 15, was also arrested when it was learned that the other two had obtained the homemade weapon from him.
<p>The zip gun was constructed from a cap pistol of the usual type. A steel barrel had been inserted inside the soft metal barrel and bound with friction tape. The hammer had been filed down and given additional force by a wire spring wound under the firing chamber. The gun is capable of shooting a .22 caliber shell.
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The three boys were turned over to juvenile court.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://leb.fbi.gov/file-repository/archives/march-1962.pdf">FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin</a>, March 1962, Vol. 31, Number 3, Page 15