Kids are dumb, this one maybe was an armed robber too.
Back in the early ‘70s you could buy starter pistols, tear gas guns and pot metal replica guns for about $30 bucks from ads in the back of various magazines.
They had snub nose revolvers, SAA cowboy guns, Luger’s and the one I bought with my dish washer cash, a 1911 replica.
I was 14 and thought it was just about the coolest thing ever, it disassembled like the real thing, had a magazine and chambered solid brass dummy rounds, the slide worked, etc.
It had a partial plug, a ridge inside the barrel and lacked the firing pin assy but it did have an extractor, recoil rod, barrel bushing etc.
The co-owner of the diner, Tony, was an Italian guy from NYC nearly beat my a** when I flashed it at him.
Once his partner Walter, a ringer for Hal Linden of Barney Miller calmed him down and he let go of me they gave me a serious talk about being stupid and getting killed.
It must have worked, I’m 65 now but I marvel at what a dumb kid I could he.
Sometimes all it takes is getting the be-Jesus scared out of you to help you realize things. I grew up in the 50's, and my father who came to this country from Holland in 1913, always told us kids to respect the law, and the police, and not do anything that would end up with our freedom being taken away. It made an impression on me as a kid. My mother always told us four kids to think twice before doing something we thought might be wrong, and to think of what could go wrong if we did it, and the possible repercussions that could occur from our actions. That stuck with me my whole life. She was a wise mother.