Somehow I get the mental image of two dumbass kids messing around with a 22lr. My Dad and Uncle taught us kids gun safety with the Boot Method. Mess up and you get the Boot. But not every kid gets properly trained. In any case in typical modern journalism fashion the story is poorly written with too little data.
We didn’t get The Boot but we did get multiple repeats of Dad’s Laws of Gun Safety. And I remember him clearly saying to look at what’s behind and beyond where you are shooting because a .22 shot can go a mile.