Tuesday, August 23, 2011

I Am A Bad Person...

...Because I had a very different reaction to this story:

Fla. dropout hoped bomb plot would cause more casualties than Columbine

A teenage dropout accused of hatching a “catastrophic” plot to set off a bomb at his former high school on the first day of classes next week is now in police custody.

Jared Cano, 17, of Tampa, Fla., is alleged to have planned an attack on Freedom High School using homemade bombs with the intent of claiming more victims than the 1999 Columbine High School massacre that resulted in 13 deaths before the two teenage shooters killed themselves.

Dropout, druggie, thief; with all the things this kid had going for him, I wonder if the cops wouldn't have been better off placing him under surveillance and hoping he blew himself up before the plot was to take place?

I liked this part:

After receiving a tip about the plan, police searched Cano’s family home. In the teenager’s bedroom they discovered materials to make pipe bombs, including shrapnel, plastic tubing, and timing and fusing devices, along with a fuel source, Castor said.

Shrapnel - nails and screws
Plastic tubing - PVC pipe
Timing - electronic timer
Fusing - candle wick
Fuel source - Coleman fuel

I wonder how many homes have the above items in them right now?

That is all.

13 comments:

Rev. Paul said...

And being logical makes you a "bad person" how, exactly?

Oops, I guess that makes me logical, too.

Dave H said...

In fairness to the police, keeping Coleman fuel in a bedroom is a little unusual. Dad never let me play with incendiaries in the house. That's what the garage was for.

Jay G said...

Dave, how quickly could you assemble these items?

And to a police chief who would claim "We were probably able to thwart a potentially catastrophic event the likes of which the city of Tampa has not seen and hopefully never will", what's the difference between a bedroom and the garage next to it?

Sarah The Cranky said...

I don't have Coleman fuel, specifically, but it isn't like Cranky Central is without various fuels, including gasoline and lamp oil.

As for the other stuff, we have all kinds of crap around here. I would be only mildly surprised if somebody discovered that we had the makings of a functional space shuttle around here somewhere. (My brothers...they're packrats.)

Old NFO said...

Um... er... stay out of my closet...

B said...

The police could find all sorts of stuff which they could claim was the makings of a bomb in my home/garage/barn/bunker...

Not that any of it is intended to be used for that purpose, mind you. But most of it could be repurposed fairly quickly and easily though.

Just don't look in the cabin at the far end of the property though.

Wally said...

ATF has long used the charge of possession of bomb making materials.

A piece of cloth (t-shirt), a glass bottle (likely one in the kitchen or fridge) and some gasoline (that small can by the mower)

Dave H said...

@Jay: Sorry, I forgot how to make a tongue-in-cheek emoticon for my last comment.

This comes up every now and then, like the sudden scrutiny of people who lived far from anyone else (farmers) buying bomb-making chemicals (fertilizer) and accelerant (diesel fuel) after the OK City bombing. It's security theater plain and simple, and the Chief there is wrangling for a Tony Award.

Johnnyreb™ said...

Heh, hearing about jihadi workplace disasters always bring a smile to my face. If this fella's demise would have been from a premature detonation, the result would have been the same.

Ed said...

Who did the kid think he was - Bill Ayers?

Stithjim said...

Why use coleman fuel?

And I hope they don't look at my reloading room..

"...and the suspect had large amounts of nitrocellulose and several thousand small, metallic containers to detonate...."

Yeesh. But walking into a room that has rifles and broadswords hanging on the wall and shelves of ammo cans...hell, why don't I just keep a few copies of the Turner Diaries and a big swastika around too? Maybe some big, pointy-topped, white robes?

SpeakerTweaker said...

You are TEH OMGDOMESTICTERRERIZM!!!1!

How dare you have all that shrapnel in your home?!? I bet you even have it buried in the walls, don't you?



tweaker

Angus McThag said...

I'm an even worse person.

Install a virus or something to his computer that redirects his internet searches to instructions that will make a real bomb...



That will detonate as soon as the detonator is connected.

Why take chances?