Reading more about this, it seems to have come after a several year investigation. Yet he is out on bail as for some reason the only thing he's being charged with is owning a short barreled rifle. Which seems bizarre. https://www.vpm.org/news/2024-12-31/norfolk-homemade-explosi...
A short-barreled rifle, on the other hand, it is strictly forbidden without an appropriate Federal tax stamp.
One of the reasons that high-explosives are widely legal is that they have several common applications for individual use. Despite the availability and consumption of high-explosives in the US, misuse has been very rare in practice.
One of my rural buddies told me how he spent a summer mixing diesel and fertilizer to clear fields, approaching it like a lab experiment and keeping detailed notes.
Honestly, both sounded like a lot of fun.
https://www.amazon.com/Island-Bush-Pilot-Founder-Airlines/dp...
Going to see how well it works soon though; a few weeks ago had a ~2ft diameter stump left when my 65ft spruce snapped in a wind storm. Turns out about halfway up it had branched off into two trunks, and that junction was rotting, the wind storm caused that junction to snap half way up. In looking, my neighbor has a tree with the same dual-trunk situation, though hers is more likely to land on her house.
As to how much it matters or not? No clue.
Yeah, like AR-15 and high explosives, surprisingly violent death rate is much lower here…
The US also regulate chemicals, and knives are free to sell everywhere, it's just forbidden to be carried in public.
Many things which were common in my youth are vanishing forever.
How can otherwise reasonable people come to believe nonsense like this just because it fits their worldviews will always remain a mystery for me.
AR-15s are actually not banned in many parts of the EU.
The dude showed of this EU compliant collection.
Multiple pistols and rifles, and what some state would classify as weapons of war, an SBR, or a assault weapon.
All obtained legally via permits and a local cop signing off on the paperwork.
It's actually interesting to met that, in the American discourse, we never discourse an EU-style classification system. Whenever people in the US propose new gun regulation, it always a maximalist approach -- banning the AR-15 completely.
The European system, broadly speaking, is not like that.
There are federal classes for dealers and manufacturers -- manufacturers of silencers, of automatic weapons, of missiles and rockets, &c, and dealers of these articles -- but that also is not like the European classification system I am talking about, which is for end users.
The NFA, which does apply special regulation to silencers, short-barreled rifles and some other items, which allows them to be owned by end users, and that is kind of similar but there is a real difference: you file for a tax stamp and wait for a background check to complete, without having to worry about taking a particular course and getting a certain grade.
Speech, in both the EU and the US is free under the limits set by law, the US isn't an “absolute free speech land”, you will definitely be jailed for speech that goes against the law (for instance death threats, see [1]).
> equity compensation...
What are you talking about, I've been given equity more than once…
[1]: https://nypost.com/2024/12/12/us-news/florida-mom-arrested-f...
The compounds generally are. The applicable use is where the laws come into play. Things like pipe bombs, devices marked "lethal", etc are not legal without special permits and would be deemed destructive devices.
Maybe the charge would get thrown out at some point, but not including it in the indictment seems odd.
Though it would be helpful to know which state, because I don’t know of any that are quite that easy to deal with.
BATF to my knowledge does still require a license (albeit easy to get if you meet the requirements) for commercial use, anyway.
Seems fairly clear cut. You could argue the term "business" means they need to be selling the stuff, but the definitions clarify "manufacturing" includes for personal use.
edit it never occurred to me he may be licensed. Still, this particular explosive seems to have no approved use, and the licensing seems to be for specific explosives. I may be wrong on that though.
And it's Virginia, the Isle of Wight is a county in Virginia.
The dealer would be the one with the license.
Also, manufacturing and using on site for non-commercial purposes is exempted (albeit not explicitly). Which is why tannerite and personal explosives research is fine and widespread.
While I get some things are exempt like tannerite, I find it highly unlikely someone could just manufacture TNT or rdx and use it in their back yard without breaking a ton of laws.
Even if you used it within the 24 hour requirement so it didn't have to be stored(iirc from my memory of old legal readings)
Specifically, “Persons manufacturing explosives for their own personal, non-business use only (e.g., personal target practice) are not required to have a federal explosives license or permit under 27 CFR, Part 555”
The issue is the law is clearly written to regulate commercial activites, and the fed gov’t (at least in theory) only has jurisdiction over commercial activities (those involving trade). There is a lot of court precedent on this, some of it confusing. So while the law doesn’t explicitly exempt personal, non-business use, the courts (and constitution), and the law, doesn’t cover personal, non-business use either. So, legal.
also, there is zero chance they could stop it.
However, it may be that the suspect violated a different section of the law:
It shall be unlawful for any person to store any explosive material in a manner not in conformity with regulations promulgated by the Attorney General.
The suspect may also have violated the NFA, by manufacturing destructive devices without appropriate permitting or record keeping.
The definitions, which were on the previous page. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/841
I'm not sure if we can take that to mean "engaged in the business of manufacturing" includes non-commercial activity.
it’s not explicitly called out in the law, like you’re noting. rather that personal, non-commercial use just isn’t covered by the law. So legal/exempt.
Other situations, like non-personal, non-commercial use are covered - distribution requires licensing even if not paid, same as import/export, doing business in explosives, etc.
Where some YouTubers and the like have gotten in trouble is when they start making money off what would otherwise be personal use (like showing videos of tannerite usage, or some other synthesis), but funny enough if they get demonitized and aren’t using it for some business purpose, they’re fine.
Then, during the pre-trial phase, a superseding indictment can be added as more evidence is gathered and a stronger case is put together.
This happened with Paul Manafort, who was first indicted for “conspiracy against the United States”, but then the superseding indictment included all sorts of tax and bank fraud.
Note that it's not totally unregulated. If you are only an occasional user, you get a permit from the ATF for $25. Plus whatever your state/county wants.
https://www.atf.gov/explosives/federal-explosives-licenses-a...
I suspect a far greater many are injured from fireworks.
Get out of here with your ridiculous 1823 hyperbole. These explosive can be very efficient and useful when managing multiple acres.
If you're clearing multiple acres you use a track hoe and a large bulldozer. Source: the 60 acres of grown up crp we finished clearing last month.
I know the Internet wants you to think that rural life is all guns and explosions, but that's sometimes not the case. Why do you think every small town has multiple excavator companies?
Because the law is such an expensive PITA to comply with that nobody does it. People blew up rocks and stumps all the time before the mid 1970s.
Different experiences for different folks.
About once a week I get pissed off that I'm on Craigslist looking for expensive tractors and expensive attachments instead of just a drill bit and explosives all because some leftists blew up some bathrooms in the 1970s and the 1970s equivalent of people like you wrung their hands over it.
Source: Clearing acreage the hard way in my spare time
It's fairly common for tannerite to be used for target shooting.
Gunpowder is commonly available for reloading.
I doubt this is common and should probably be illegal if it isn't already because it's horrible for the environment. However, blast fishing is apparently actually a thing! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blast_fishing
Remember FPSRussia went down for paint on a serial number and a few vape pens but the arrest bulletin made him sound like a madman.
[1] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/8228342/parties/united-...
This appears to be the actual case: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69482949/united-states-...
It’s an explosive, full stop. I have no problem with the premade targets that have a small amount, but honestly, the larger quantities should require at a minimum a background check.
Almost all popular precursor chemicals for drugs and explosives are heavily controlled in Europe.
[1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:...
I mean if someone wants to cause mass causulty and terror its going to happen, be it a gun or a knife or explosive. Hell I'd argue cyber attacks could also do the same.
Sure, the general idea though is to raise the barrier - both to make it more difficult to get the weapon in question and to have better chances of red flags popping up somewhere along the chain.
Same for gun background checks outside of the US, for requiring CDLs to rent trucks capable of plowing through assemblies of people, or for requiring at least a CPL if not an ATPL to pilot a plane capable of dealing a large amount of damage.
The higher the damage potential in the hands of someone abusing a thing for terrorism, the higher the barriers to entry should be.
Because the vast majority of these guys are all talk. For every Ted Kaczynski there are a thousand Dale Dribbles: backyard tinkerers who give up all notion of resistance when the cops actually show up. The cops cannot tell the difference and so must treat them all as potential Teds. Once safely in custody, the Dales will quietly plead guilty to vastly reduced charges.
The difference is that the Dale Gribbles don't go out of their way to harm anyone whereas the uncle Teds do.
You don't need a Waco for many people to die a violent death.