Maine man with explosives discussed attacking houses of worship in Chicago

[WritersPanic]

Here's how something simple can utterly ruin someone's life.

Suspect Xavier Pelkey discussed plans for attacks at mosques, synagogue


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They're just fireworks taped together, and would not have drawn serious charges. Except, he packed them with tacks and other metal to act as shrapnel. THAT is what made it a felony and opened the gray bar door to him for 10 years.

Just looking at the things it's obvious he didn't know what he was doing. Who has multiple fuses that have to be lit from different sides? You'd barely have time to throw it. It will be interesting to see what his web searches have been like (because a felony means they can look at all of it).

[6-eyed]

When I was 17, my friends and I made cherry bombs out of pill bottles packed with gun powder and wrapped tightly with tape. We set them off for fun and they could pack a punch.

Highly doubtful those taped fireworks would’ve done much damage in a house of worship. But That doesn’t matter though. It’s the intent that matters the most.

Play stupid games. Win stupid prizes.

[WritersPanic]

When I was 17, my friends and I made cherry bombs out of pill bottles packed with gun powder and wrapped tightly with tape. We set them off for fun and they could pack a punch.

Highly doubtful those taped fireworks would’ve done much damage in a house of worship. But That doesn’t matter though. It’s the intent that matters the most.

Play stupid games. Win stupid prizes.

Ordinarily I'd agree. But adding nails and such to the package changes everything. I have to drive into Alabama to get them, but I can get serious fireworks there. The sort people use to stun fish in ponds and launch bricks in to the air. Taping nails to stuff like that turns them into guaranteed injuries and some chance of killing someone. Modifying fireworks is a felony to begin with, but arming them is another matter entirely. There is no leniency for homemade claymore mines.

[WritersPanic]

Back in the 80s when I was strung out on meth, but too broke to get any, I used to make a close cousin with Benezedrex nasal inhalers. The inhaler came in a seriously hard plastic tube with a threaded top. I filled one with black powder and added a fuse from a cherry bomb and the Benze-Bomb was born. The hardness of the plastic meant that more pressure was achieved before the casing ruptured, very loudly.

Before that I was using miniature liquor bottles because glass can hold a lot of pressure before the thermal differential turns the glass back into sand. It's also very loud, which was my only aim. I used to use a cigarette as a slow fuse with the commercial fuse at the end. On a drunken outing I set 4 of them in harmless but elevated places in our neighborhood. Minutes later it was like they exploded in succession, sounding like large guns all around us. I don't know how I got away with it except that I wasn't driving.

When I was younger, like 7th grade, I used a cigarette to burn through a string that was holding a balsa wood glider below a kite. It was one of the cooler things I did as a kid. It was my step brother's Bat kite and shortly after the glider let loose, the kite caught fire. But the glider's flight was amazing, it was up well over 2 minutes doing all kinds of stuff in the wind.

[Coldwater]

Ordinarily I'd agree. But adding nails and such to the package changes everything. I have to drive into Alabama to get them, but I can get serious fireworks there. The sort people use to stun fish in ponds and launch bricks in to the air. Taping nails to stuff like that turns them into guaranteed injuries and some chance of killing someone. Modifying fireworks is a felony to begin with, but arming them is another matter entirely. There is no leniency for homemade claymore mines.

And only 18 years old