Poor Harry Reid. He can’t seem to do much of anything right these days. Not long after he went to the trouble to introduce Frank Lautenberg’s opportunistic black powder background check bill in the Senate, we get news that the Flying Tsarnaev Brothers didn’t, in fact, get their bomb-making components from a gun store or any other reloading gear seller. Instead, Tarmerlan went to the same fireworks retailer that would-be Times Square car-bomber Faisal Shahzad used to source his explosives. That one Phantom Fireworks purchase yielded the Chechnyans about three pounds of powder, enough for one of their two pressure cooker IEDs. And there are five other fireworks stores in the same area. Of course, now that we know where the welfare-subsidized jihadis got their explosives, we’re sure Senators Lautenberg and Reid will want to kill their ill-conceived, knee-jerk attempt at yet more firearms regulation. They will, won’t they?

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

48 COMMENTS

    • When reporting this story, the now fully biased CBS Evening News showed one of these mortar charge cylinders yesterday IN CLOSE UP, without any measure of scale within view, to make the mortar charges appear to be as big as 5 gallon paint cans or larger – and held that view for about 5 seconds to make the point sink in.

      It wasn’t until a later split second view in the report showing one of these mortar charges sitting on the cash register counter next to a cashier that one could see they are only actually about 6-8 inches tall.

      THAT should be the Incendiary Image of the Day!
      (Literally and figuratively.)

      • The cannisters are 1.75″ around and about 3″ tall. There isn’t enough black powder in the entire kit to cause an explosion (in open air) of over 5 feet let alone contained. Total – between the 2 kits – there is only about 1 pound of black poweder, far from what it would take to create the blast. It certainly would not have the force to blow apart a pressure cooker. They also have no confirmed evidence that the fireworks were disassembled and used for the bombing efforts, only that Phantom fireworks (who is very ungraciously using this as an advertising gig) sold them some reloadble, consumer grade shells. Each shell only contains 60 grams of pyrotechnic components – that includes the “effects”, the propellant, and the black powder. Consumer fireworks, if misused, can hurt someone but it (99% of the time) won’t be fatal. They are safe and completely inert unless altered. “…that the other components were also built largely, if not entirely of commercially available items, including parts of a remote control toy car, BBs and small nails. “

  2. Can’t we start by ending welfare for anyone without a green card? Where are Reid and Lautenberg on that rather important issue?

  3. Can someone please get Harry and Frank a towel to wipe the egg whites (I hope it’s egg whites) off their faces.

  4. I blew a sigh of relief on this one.

    This could be a very good thing because perhaps the NRA will team up with the fireworks industry to create a stronger defense against Democrats.

    No doubt that the Democrats will now try to ban the Fourth of July.

  5. If you ban or control all the things that can be used by bad people to hurt good people, the bad people will have no choice other than to stop being bad people. (/sarc)

    Start collecting all the sharp and jagged rocks.

  6. The fine senators will certainly not kill their bill. The fact that the criminals acquired their chemicals from fireworks doesn’t matter.

    What matters is that the public saw a bomb go “boom” in a crowded place and our senators claim to have a solution. And here’s the insidious part: when voters hear the word “bomb” and “gun powder” in the same sentence, they will automatically associate those two and demand regulation. Never let a crisis go to waste, right?

    And every time this legislation comes up, we have to hammer (TM) those advocates and demand that the bill include regulations on “assault” pressure cookers and other related kitchen items with at least one “assault” feature.

    • Give it a break. This bill is going nowhere fast. There is no demand for “gunpowder control’ on the part of the public.

      I am sure glad there isn’t a IQ stipulation on the Bill of Rights.

    • Years ago, the feds banned anything with more than 50mg of flash powder (e.g. Al + KClO4).

      Most states still allow some form of consumer fireworks, including those that might contain significant amounts of black powder (the primary component of lift charges, burst charges, aerial stars, etc.).

      http://americanpyro.com/pdf/2012-State-Laws-Firework-Map313.pdf

      But, you’re right. Prohibition doesn’t work. Even if there was a blanket ban on the possession or manufacture of black powder, it’s just too easy to make. A decent garden supply store has 2 of the 3 components; the third is just charcoal.

    • Pennsylvania banned fireworks sales in Pennsylvania to residents of the state. But you can still come here and buy them if your from out of state. Figure that.

      On the other hand, it is illegal for Pennsylvania residents to cross the border to buy alcohol.

      • That’s easy … PA’s sales tax revenue is more important than the safety of people who live in other states.

        It’s the same as CO carving an exception for manufacturers of “high capacity” magazines – they can make them in the state, as long as they ship them across CO’s border. CO wanted the jobs, tax revenues, etc.

        • Co will lose a lot of jobs because of their recent law. It used to be a big hunting state inwhich I partook of. The outfitters will hurt, tax revenue will drop, licenses and fees will go away and manufacturers will ultimately leave.

  8. The sad part is these guys feel none of the shame that any normal person would feel at being hopelessly inept at their jobs.

  11. Reading the comments section of the article on NYDN makes me want to puke and cry. Not to sound insensitive, but 3 people die and we should ban fireworks? Why not ban fertilizer plants, many more people died in the TX explosion. Also many comments advocate restricting “fireworks” to sparklers only. Clearly they have never seen a sparkler bomb.

    Is personal responsibility dead in this country?

    It’s as if I woke up one day and was no longer living in America. I know this happened a long time ago but to hear these people knowing their vote cancels mine is disgusting.

  12. “Poor Harry Reid. He can’t seem to do much of anything right these days.”

    The overall situation seems too complicated to warrant quite this much exuberance, but Lautenberg’s bill does seem a bit far-fetched to make it.

  15. They used fireworks? Well, what we need then is a high capacity clip ban or more handgun fees and background checks to prevent the murder of innocent children. It’s the only reasonable thing to do.

  16. Dont count on the asshats jumping off the banwagon they are rabid about this and it will be with US forever.wish WE could vote them out there should be a law about term limits.

  18. Should we be worried that politicians don’t even wait for the facts to come out about an incident before rushing to introduce legislation curtailing rights granted by our Bill of Rights? LOL

  19. I’ll say it again, this bill is just another attempt at creating a Federal Registry, of gunpowder/ammunition users in this case. Same thing as the background checks under a different guise. You buy ammo, you have a gun….

  20. I’ve got a battery of Roman candles and bottle rockets ready to deploy as anti-drone flak. Now I just need to rig a few mortars and my airspace will be covered heh heh.

  21. Ban the forth of July, Does it mean anything any more ? ban the bill of rights, why not. We don’t let them have ideas, (public school) .Why would we let them have Guns? that was Joseph Stalin USSR. Sounds like Amerika today .

  23. I had not thought of fireworks, though. Now I have another source of propellant if the SHTF.

    Some fireworks, some pipe, and some melted down lead (from fishing or tire balancing weights) is all you need to make a functional muzzleloader. Getting the amount of propellant right could be a little dicey though. You only get to get it wrong once.

  24. Fireworks are illegal in CT, yet I cannot pass a single block on the 4th of July without them going off somewhere. My neighbor has his own Macy’s day display with zero fear of being arrested. While they have all these laws about fireworks, nobody seems to really enforce them….we will see what happens now.

  25. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the crazy one. When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up to invent machines and go into outer space–I ended up working in aerospace. My best friend wanted to be a doctor, and now he is one.

    What kind of screwed up kid chooses to grow up to make dumb rules to strip people of their rights and lock them in cages?

    Seriously–are these people missing a chip?

    Am I?

    • They have no and I mean no morals or values, they think as if they know it all, but the sad part is they have never did any real thinking or any reasoning , power is best in the hands of the state (their god)…they have no nation , no God, they are LOST. no right or wrong… and they do not understand the difference of nations… that is why they think a one world government will work… but it never will or can work. They hate America , and want it replaced …. Read the book … THE THIRD WAVE…

Comments are closed.