Reply to post: Re: surely trying to kill someone in a business quarrel isn't terrorism?

Bloke jailed for trying to blow up UK crypto-cash biz after it failed to reset his account password

WolfFan Silver badge

Re: surely trying to kill someone in a business quarrel isn't terrorism?

Every time I see 'suspect had bomb-making materials' I sigh.

I have, right now, in my house, the following:

gasoline/petrol

kerosene

foam packing stuff

cooking oil (coconut derived)

cooking oil (olive derived)

cooking oil (other)

potassium permanganate

sulfuric acid

nitric acid

laundry soap (powder)

laundry soap (liquid)

fertiliser (several types)

ammonia

iodine

high-quality paper

hand soap (bar)

hand soap (liquid)

chlorine bleach

a large assortment of insecticides and herbicides

I can, with only a little effort and some glassware, make the following items using the above:

nitrocellulose

nitroglycerin

TNT

napalm

several different plastic explosives

at least three different nerve agents

mustard gas

phosgene

and more. Making a bomb would merely require packing some explosive into a container with/without extras to generate fragmentation, plus a timer (a clock or a watch; I've got those, too) or a remote detonator (a cell phone; those could be set to alarm and function as timers, too). Most of the explosive creation methods would be easily in the reach of anyone who has passed high school chemistry. Making sarin or napalm or nitroglycerin is easy, and making TNT or plastic explosives isn't that hard. Look up PETN and/or RDX. (Bad idea if you're actually intending to blow something up, unless you use someone else's account to do the looking up.) (PETN is derived from 19th century chemistry; it's trivial to make today.)

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