Two teenage boys learned the hard way the danger of building a makeshift weapon when one of them was shot in his hand.
The Mammoth 14-year-olds built the weapon from various discards and tools found on the property where one of the boys lives. They secured a short piece of pipe in a vise, and stuffed shells, which they found in a shed, into one end of the pipe before striking the primer end of the ammunition with a small axe, according to Tim Gaffney, spokesman for the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies found at least two spent rifle casings near the vise and a piece of wooden furniture with a hole in it 20 feet away from where the metal pipe was aimed, Gaffney said.
“When one of the juveniles put a 12-gauge shotgun slug in the pipe and attempted to discharge it in the same manner, the round blew up and shrapnel became lodged in the palm of his left hand,” according to Gaffney.
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The teen was taken to a Tucson hospital for surgery.
Deputies collected the unspent rounds of ammo for destruction because the teen’s guardian is not allowed to have ammo or firearms, Gaffney said.
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