The principal also said that if the gun was loaded (caps) he would have had to call the cops.
Well, I guess, if it was loaded with caps, THAT’S dangerous.
I wasn’t involved, but my older brother and a neighbor kid, back there in farm country, used to go out when they were maybe twelve or thirteen, and use their bolt-action .22-short rifles to plink at gophers and squirrels. However, if this got too boring, they would start playing “Nazi and GI” (this was in the early or middle 1940’s, WW II was still going on), hiding behind trees and rocks, then jumping out and snapping off a shot, always intentionally aimed to the side or above the other’s head.
Occasionally one or the other would fall over and “play dead”. In retrospect, it was a damned wonder they did not end up shooting each other.