Ammonium nitrate sales remain unrestricted

[slackmaster]

This article caught my bleary eye in the news this morning. I know several regular contributors to this forum are interested in the subject, so here it is:

...The danger became clear in 1995 when Timothy McVeigh used 4,800 pounds of the common farm fertilizer to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building, killing 168 people. The same chemical was used in the October 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people in Bali and has been used in other terrorist attacks around the world, some attributed to al-Qaeda.

In 1998, a National Academy of Sciences panel of scientists and security experts recommended that Congress require buyers of ammonium nitrate to provide identification and that stores keep records of the purchases. But a law was never passed.

Fertilizer industry officials say farm-store employees already know their customers and would be suspicious of unexplained sales of ammonium nitrate. And farm organizations have lobbied against the restrictions.

"It's hard to regulate it because farmers use a lot of it for legitimate reasons," said Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa....

The article notes that just two states - South Carolina and Nevada - require ID for and track ammonium nitrate purchaces. It seems to me state-level tracking of sales of ammonium nitrate or anything else serves no purpose because of our nation's open borders.

For rest of copyrighted article please see http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040612/news_1n12bombs.html

[DBoon]

1. Meanwhile, Tommy Chong is in Federal prison

for selling decorative glassware.


Bongs are illegal, bombs aren't?

[slackmaster]

2. Interstate sale of bongs is illegal

Sale of a substance that is used in large quantities by the agriculture industry and has great potential for abuse by criminals remains unrestricted.

Building a bomb without the proper licensing is illegal.

Edited to take out redundancy by editing it out.

[DBoon]

3. Yes, we have some strange laws

Bongs are illegal because they might be used to smoke marijuana

Ammonium nitrate is unrestricted despite having been used as an explosive in the second-worst terrorist attack on US soil.

[slackmaster]

5. Sorry to keep being so nit-picky here

Bongs are not illegal. It isn't illegal to own a bong, it isn't illegal to make a bong, it isn't illegal to sell bongs at retail.

Interstate sale of "drug paraphernalia" is considered illegal under federal regulations by the Federal Trade Commission. The supposed power the feds apply derives from the Interstate Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Criminal courts have agreed, with Tommy Chong's case as an example.

Ammonium nitrate is unrestricted despite having been used as an explosive in the second-worst terrorist attack on US soil.

The same could be said of fuel oil. Without addition of a light mineral oil or certain other substances that are also unregulated (and which I will not list here), ammonium nitrate is extremely difficult to detonate. Especially in the pelletized form sold for agricultural use, it is not practical for bomb-making without physical modification and addition of other substances.

Ammonium nitrate alone is NOT considered an explosive by the federal government.

[Snow]

4. So? Gasoline & bottles make a dandy weapon - eom-

[JayS]

6. At least the stuff is not...

...propane. Now there is a killer!

It is kind of funny, in a twisted sort of way, that AN gets so little news coverage. Two propane trucks get stolen in an area where it is common for propane to be stolen and it gets more coverage that a Reagan funeral. One man fitting the exact decscription of the terrorist that we are supposed to be looking for gets busted buying the stuff that makes AN go boom and it gets a little blurb in a buried AP article.