Sometimes what you read scares the crap out of you.

Sometimes you should believe what you read. Sometimes what you read scares the crap out of you.

I published a blog post way back in August, 2006, entitled Homemade Chemical Bombs: A Legitimate Threat to Responders. I've gotten numerous notes of praise for writing and talking (on the podcast) about chemical bombs. The topic has evolved into one of my most requested talks; Consumer-Level HazMat Events.

I recently received this anonymous comment in reply to Homemade Chemical Bombs: A Legitimate Threat to Responders that I think you should read. Below is the text of that comment. Tune in to Mitigation Journal Podcast to hear more discussion on this.

"This article is obviously biased against homemade explosive devices! People view the explosives with suspicion and fear, but the truth is that they are actually much less of a threat than guns. Why is it that it is acceptable to have "fun" with guns at a target range or rural area, but anyone making an explosive device is assumed to be up to no good.
Do not condemn what you are not knowledgeable about! Most of the "chemical" bombs described in the article, despite having the potential for substancial injury, and not really extremely dangerous, and are certainly NOT capable of blasting a hole in anything. As for fire danger, a bottle of gasoline is much more dangerous than any of the "explosives" in the article.
Terrorists are very ignorant about explosives. The only thing they have been able to make so far (that is small enough to be carried by an individual) are organic peroxides.

The police and fire departments overreact when dealing with a potential bomb threat. Much time and money gets wasted in treating dry ice bombs as if they were some chemical warfare timebomb.

When someone finds a stick of dynamite or plastic explosives, do they really need to call the bomb squad? Is it not a wast of time for police cars and a team of explosives experts to show up to deal with something that could probably just be dropped off at a hazardous material dumpsite? This all is no different than children getting expelled from their school when a teacher finds a knife that the mother packed in the childs lunch to slice an apple. Overreaction, ignorance, unwarranted fear.
Supposed bomb scares make headlines on states that are on the other side of the country, but what about the FREQUENT drive by shootings that happen in inner city school districts in many parts of the country. We never hear about those."