Explosives hysteria

[KBCraig]

Hide the women and children! 22 grains of black powder are on the loose! 



My comment below...

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Hunt+continues+for+missing+explosive&articleId=6a1867de-16a4-47dc-a6c4-a96187bbd768

Hunt continues for missing explosive

By CLYNTON NAMUO
New Hampshire Union Leader Correspondent

Police continue to hunt for a small explosive reported missing Wednesday from a Milton junk yard. An extensive search of a Haverhill, Mass. scrap yard turned up nothing yesterday afternoon.

On Wednesday, a Milton scrap yard owner reported 42 catalytic converters had been stolen from his property on Sunday and Monday. One of them contained a small explosive primer, police said.

Police found seven of those converters Wednesday in Madbury at Schnitzer Northeast, a scrap yard at the former Madbury Metals site. They recovered the remaining 35 yesterday at ACM Specialized Materials, a scrap yard in Haverhill, Mass., but none of them contained the missing explosive.

"It could have fallen out during the initial burglary," State Police Sgt. Richard Mitchell said yesterday.

Police are asking for the public's help in finding the explosive, an M-82 primer charge that's typically used to set off larger explosives.

Police are advising anyone who sees the primer not to touch it and to immediately call authorities. Police said they've identified the suspected thieves and traced them to Maine, but said no one has been arrested or charged as yet.

Authorities launched a search for the missing converters Wednesday, fearing anyone who handled the part could accidentally detonate the explosive.

Catalytic converters are used to limit pollution from car exhausts. They contain valuable metals, including platinum, Schnitzer Northeast facility manager Tom Lynch said. They can be sold for anywhere from $5 to $80, he said.

Police said the Milton scrap yard owner found the primer in a car on his site. Because he was ammo supply sergeant in the Army, he immediately recognized it as an explosive. The scrap yard owner then put the primer into a converter.

Mitchell said police still don't know where the primer came from or why it was in the car. He also said he didn't know what type of car the primer was found in.

After reporting the seven converters were sent to Schnitzer Northeast, the Milton scrap yard owner told police the remaining 35 had been sold to a man operating a white box truck in Fox Run Mall's parking lot in Newington. Police were asked how the Milton scrap yard owner knew that, but they would not comment.

With the information, police were able to track the converters down to Massachusetts.

Authorities searched ACM Specialized Materials in Haverhill, Mass. for six hours yesterday, finding all the missing converters but no explosive.

The extensive multi-state search for explosives and suspects included local and state police from New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts as well as the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.

State police refused to identify the Milton scrap yard, saying only that it was in Milton Mills.

Milton Police Chief Mark McGowan and a town official said yesterday there is only one registered scrap yard in Milton, and it is run by local resident Roger Libby. Libby did not return messages yesterday.
###


Well. I'm glad they spent so much money and manpower on what amounts to a shotgun shell. 

Here's the reply I submitted:

Lord, what a waste of time and money!

The M82 primer is not an "explosive". It is the primer that sets off the powder charge in field artillery howitzers.

The M82 contains 22 grains of black powder. While black powder is classified as an explosive, 22 grains is a mere 0.05 ounce. You wouldn't want to hold it in your hand when it detonated, but it's not a bomb.

Black powder is sold in 1- and 5-pound cans in sporting goods stores throughout the country. That's up to 1,600 times the amount in the missing primer.

The source of the missing primer? Undoubtedly a National Guard artillery gunner dropped it out of his pocket after a weekend drill.

Mystery solved.

[penguins4me]

Heck, if they're that worried about it, I'll _give_ them 22 grains of black powder.

Goex or Swiss? :P

[E-ville]

Yes but m82's are gateway bombs , you know like weed is a gateway drug.. So we must stop it becuase its the "war on bombs" you know.

These people have nothing beter to do, your cars gas tank can be more harmfull to your health than this.

[Recumbent ReCycler]

The M82 is essentially a blank cartridge that has less powder than a .45-70 cartridge.  I have a .45-70 blank that I would be willing to sell for less than what they spent on the search for the M82 primer. 

[Recumbent ReCycler]

I left a reply for the Union Leader on the articles page.  Here is what I wrote:

All this over a primer cartridge that contains 22 grains of black powder?  This is a clear example of government excess and overreaction.  If you shoot, you know that a primer is the part of a cartridge that when struck by a firing pin, ignites the gun powder in the cartridge, which sends the bullet down the barrel.  The M-82 is just a large primer for some military guns, and is still smaller than some pistol cartridges.  It appears to me that agents in the alphabet agencies are trying to redefine things to make them sound more sinister and to increase their power to control them.  I have heard federal agents refer to common fireworks as "improvised explosive devices", even though they contain no metal and are not used as weapons.  It appears to me that since the alphabet agencies have such a hard time finding actual criminals, they are making a big deal about little things like primers in an attempt to justify their jobs and to scare the public into giving them more power.  Unfortunately many reporters don't do adequate research, and report stories the way our public servants want them told.  I fear that it won't be long until reloaders will be labeled as manufacturers of explosive devices (ammunitiion), a box of small pistol primers will be referred to as hundreds of small explosives, and a person who makes their own black powder and put it in a container will be said to have made an explosive device, even though it is safe and does not have a detonator in it.  It used to be that just about anyone could buy dynamite at a local hardware store without needing a license.  Now the CPSC is trying to heavily restrict our ability to buy things that could be used to make anything that could be used to make fireworks, like sulfur, chlorates, perchlorates, nitrates, some types of metals, fuse, cardboard tubes, paper caps, and more, and they have had some success in limiting what kinds of chemicals people can buy by using tax dollars to sue American chemical companies.  Our federal government has grown too large and too powerful.  They are using fear and intimidation to try to enslave us.  The only peaceful solution that I can think of is to replace the big government politicians currently in office (both Democrats and Republicans) with politicians who will work to reduce the size of government.  That is why I support Ron Paul for president.

[KBCraig]

I left a reply for the Union Leader on the articles page.

Good one!

They didn't add my comment.

[E-ville]

I really think we can make a difference pointing out these stupidity cases, and give $ figures that show how stupid it is that they do this.. this is a prime example of just how idiotic government gets.

People respond when you say x number of dollars of your tax dollars went to trying to find a device than contains less destructive force than a gallon of gas... or something like that.. you would actually have to figure how much energy is in the powder and a gallon of gas to make this true..

I'm willing to bet a gallon of gas has way more power stored in it than this device. i be will to bet a cup of gasoline has more power stored in it. come on this thing is essentially a large fire cracker.

E-ville

[Recumbent ReCycler]

Fosters picked up the story, but didn't do much better at telling it.  http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070622/FOSTERS01/106220445
The Union Leader did a follow-up story.  http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Junkyard+owner+tells+of+scramble+to+find+thieves+who+unwittingly+took+an+explosive+primer&articleId=ceb36aac-493b-46f1-8897-adc345ac1884
Apparently this was the first story about the incident.  http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Stolen+catalytic+converters+could+contain+an+explosive&articleId=1571c0a0-467c-4abb-9232-76f7daf1688e

While the M-82 is about the size of a shotgun shell (12 ga?), the powder charge is comparable to some pistol cartridges.  It fires a flame out the front of the primer body, but doesn't explode unless sufficiently confined.

[LiveFree]

Gotta justify the paychecks and the pensions, ya know!