Boston Marathon bomb blast (courtesy kitv.com)

“A pressure cooker stuffed with gunpowder and shrapnel caused at least one of the blasts at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured 176 others in the worst attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001,” chicagotribune.com reports. The trib attributes the info to “law enforcement” sources, confirming suspicions raised by the blast’s bright flash and smoke cloud. Sadly, our man Leghorn called this one minutes after the explosion. Sad because Nick raised the possibility that a gunpowder-based bomb could lead to legislation restricting gun owners’ access to gunpowder and other reloading components. Even the most skeptical among us must now realize that “common sense” gunpowder control doesn’t seem as far-fetched as it did just twenty-four hours ago.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

106 COMMENTS

  1. And Bullet control . it might be expensive but you could always just break apart whole cartridges to get your powder…

  3. but…but…what about the assault pressure cookers, nails, BB’s? The left will not stop until we are all on our knees begging…yessuh master…

  4. How about sad because there are 170+ casualties? You guys are coming across as being pretty self centered.

    • Couldn’t agree more, this site has come off as caring very little about those injured/killed in this tragedy and more concerned with how it is going to affect their personal lives. But hey whats important is an article on gun powder control not a post offering condolences and support for those involved, or giving kudos to first responders that saved lives (instead there is a thread condemning police for pulling a gun in response to the blast).

      • Thank you for being our moral compass. I don’t know what we’d do without you. But I’m willing to try it and see.

      • This is a blog about guns and gun rights. If you want an emotional response that clouds the mind and rids the mind of that annoying burden of vigilance, there are plenty of leftist sites you can visit.

      • I couldn’t disagree more. Around here were used to dealing with people using black swan events that affect a miniscule portion of the population to foist regulations on the rest of us. If there were 500 people killed or injured at Boston (approximately double the last number I heard), that is 0.00016% of our population, and yet there exists the very real possibility of some (possibly well-meaning) person pushing black powder regulation based on that incident.

        If you want feelings and tears and condolences, I hear Facebook is a pretty good place for that. I don’t know from personal experience.

        • No kidding. Chicago has more people killed via violence every Friday night than this bombing. But go ahead and get all caught up in the media soap opera on this bombing. I feel for the victims, especially the child, but why are they any more special than kids killed by stray bullets in Chicago.

      • This is a blog about gun rights and this incident could have a sweeping effect on the entire reloading industry and spark another national push for anti-gun legislation. Are we not allowed to talk about it because that would be disrespectful? Please don’t come to a gun-rights specific blog and play the morality card when people try to discuss gun-rights related events. It’s ridiculous.

        If you want to voice your support for the victims in Boston I’m sure there are plenty of Facebook memorial pages you could find. Or you could donate blood or money to the Red Cross. You could even have a moment of silence by yourself. Or a few hours of silence. Better yet, just stop talking entirely and let the adults talk.

      • Apparently you don’t know this: the presentation of an idea or thought does not preclude any other idea or thought.

        You can project on to others all you want, but it will still be your own projection.

      • Why wouldn’t I be concerned with how this will affect me? I think most people are quite concerned with how any kind of action by others could affect themselves. To not consider how others actions might affect yourself is to be ignorant and naive.

      • Exactly what would another “Our thoughts and blah blah blah are with Boston” post accomplish? Nothing. Everyone knows everyone else is thinking about the victims, there’s no need to say it. What there is a need for is this website to continue to provide information pertaining to firearms (and accessories) ownership relevant to current events.

      • I’m surprised you have time to post on the internet. Shouldn’t you be feeding starving children in Africa and India or putting an ending human trafficking?

        Just because some people aren’t all blubbery and emotional doesn’t mean they don’t care. Of course it’s a damn tragedy and of course we all feel terrible about the victims and their surviving relatives and friends.

        But one thing you’ll notice, most “gun people” are rational enough to keep a level head when tragedy strikes because, unlike the knee-jerk naive politicians that live in their walled estates, we know all too well that violence is very much a part of life, especially here in the US. Why in the hell do you think most of us carry? Because we want to have a piece of metal on our hips for the sake of fashion? Well, arguably, maybe some of us do..

        But the point remains, “gun folk” seem to be the only ones that realize (as this bombing illustrates) that these horrible violent acts are caused by evil people, not evil tools.

        • “violent acts are caused by evil people, not evil tools”

          And that’s the rub, isn’t it.

          We can’t legislate evil people. If you don’t happen to spoil a plot far enough to constitute an attempt that can be prosecuted, you have nothing. Anything else falls under “think crime”.

          And it seems law enforcement can’t win the invasion of privacy questions regarding the report of mental issues, let alone deprivation of 2A rights on the basis of that information.

          Universal Background Checks? Nope, can’t have those either, even though you could conceivably have it without a registry and without resorting to FFL to do them.

          So, what else do we leave on the table but the legislation of the tools used?

        • elnonio says:…So, what else do we leave on the table but the legislation of the tools used?

          And as has been pointed out countless times before…. trying to legislate the tools used does not prevent the tools from being used. Or prevent other tools being used to the same effect. Outlaw guns, they use sticks. Outlaw sticks, they use rocks. Outlaw rocks and they use their hands. How do you outlaw hands?

          And don’t confuse this point of view as somehow advocating the removal of laws. Laws serve a purpose and that is to penalize incorrect actions. Speeding can be dangerous so we set speed limits to penalize those who speed when caught. We don’t pass laws requiring cars have governors/limiters in them which is what you suggest by trying to legislate the tools.

          And remember, sometimes the best thing to do is to not do anything.

    • I once spent some time at a place called Ft Knox in Kentucky where some gentlemen explained to me the exact value of sympathy and emotion in the wake of a tragedy. Want to guess their opinion as to how useful it is to accomplishing anything?

      This situation is unfortunate. Now buck up and Charlie Mike.

    • In the time it took you to type that, more people than that were injured or killed by cars. Let me know when your minute of silence for them is done and we’ll have about 400 more casualties for you to mourn over.

      It’s called logic. After Pearl Harbor was bombed, we didn’t sit down and cry, we jacked the war factories into overdrive. Every violent attack on the US is also an attack on our basic rights, since our politicians are tyrants looking for excuses and our people are pathetic willful morons all too happy to give their rights away. I choose to focus on the more far-reaching consequences.

    • I’m damned certain to be self-centered when I’m thinking about the possibility that a member of my family or a close friend could be in the casualty radius of such a device.

      I’m merely sad when this stuff happens to other innocents. But more concerned—bordering on angry—about the stupidity of the politicians and media who protect these perps.

    • Sorry, when the rights of millions of people might be violated as a result, I don’t give a damn about those people that I’ve never met.

    • Its not self center, what self centered is Obama and people like him who are going to use those casualties as martyrs for their own agenda just like they’ve done with the people in Sandy Hook.

  5. Hey dudes….I thought I would point out that the muslim published crapola that tells these retards how to make one of these bombs points to the use of matchstick heads amongst a million other ways of getting an mechanical boom.

    Do they ban black powder for civilian sales? I doubt it….but I bet they try to make it part of the NICS system, along with every bullet and other device containing black powder from here on out.

    Fireworks? Yeah….gonna need to see your ID, and you’ll have to fill out this form.

    Think I’m wrong?

    Hope so….yet I wouldn’t put it past our leaders to turn a horrible, tragic bombing into a means for back door gun control via crazy new laws on ammo…because you know…bullets have splosions in them and stuff.

    May be time to invest some engineering talent in the worlds best airgun.

    • 3 killed. People are allowed to have their own opinions and just because you do not agree does not mean they are wrong. And yes, most of the people here are like a cult. If you have one view that is different than the collective…watch out.

      • I understand your point, but am left with the enigma as to why it was in reply with my post?

    • Exactly. If memory serves black powder is listed as an explosive and smokeless powder as a propellant. Black powder burns at the same rate no matter what. Smokeless doesn’t.

      Put a 1/2 teaspoon of blackpowder on the ground and a 1/2 teaspoon of smokeless on the ground. Light ’em and you’ll see the difference.

      • In order to reach full energy it seems reasonable said vessel would have to contain pressure of at least five-digit psi. Of course I’m not in the bomb-making business so I’m just guessing.

    • That will not make any difference to the antis. When have you ever known them to cite facts and common sense. No sir, it will just be labled “gun powder” wether it’s smokeless, black powder, pyrodex or whatever. Things are about to go full retard again!!

  8. The sad thing is I don’t see a likelihood of a huge opposition to limits on black powder. It’s dearly beloved and all that, but realistically, how many gun people you know mess with black powder on anything approaching a regular basis? How many people are going to raise a fuss about that compared to black rifles or magazine sizes?

    • Banning black powder REALLY hems us in, and cuts off a last avenue of resistance.

      These bastards are NOT stupid; they’re very clever, and not afraid of the sleaziest tactics. I’m not confident we can beat them by fighting fair.

    • I know a couple three fellas that shoot BP regularly.

      In Arizona and a lot of other states BP is big since they get first crack during hunting season and a ban on BP would be a 100% can’t-worm-out-of-it attack on the hunters the progressives claim to be protecting.

    • Ah, but you see the Democrats have set them up for failure on this. They’re the ones who routinely claim that the Second Amendment only protects muskets – well, using their warped definition of the Second Amendment, they’d FINALLY be infringing on the RKBA if they restricted black powder.

  9. Why is everyone jumping to conclusions? I bet someone just forgot about their pot of chile. Running makes you hungry. I hear that recipe is da Bomb!

  10. What the hell is wrong with America! We’ve let the government into every part of our lives, and unfortunately…mine too! The worst part is most don’t seem to care.
    I’ll be 70 next year, can remember when Harry S Truman was president, spent my youth on a farm, went to college then eight years in the USAF, been to college, been to war, built and owned small businesses. (Yes, I did build that!)
    Have watched the elected politicians corrupt our system of government since the 60’s, but they are in overdrive now! They spend money like drunken sailors and when it’s gone they want more! They trample the constitution and bill of rights and don’t even care. There isn’t even a two party system anymore, they are like two peas in a pod. They could care less about what “the people” want, it’s all about power and money.
    Well kids, hope you’re happy as slaves to the elite…

  11. TO: All
    RE: Gun Powder and a Pressure Cooker?

    Who needs gun powder?

    Klebold and Harris attempted the same at Columbine with a bit of propane in a propane tank. And it would have been more effective, if they’d rigged it properly.

    For all of that, some gasoline in a pressure cooker would work.

    So are they going to outlaw gasoline? Pressure cookers? Propane and tanks? Gas fired grills?

    People can make fuel-air bombs from a 5-pound sack of flour and a couple of fire-crackers. That makes every well-stocked kitchen in America a potential bomb factory. And every grocery store a source of ‘weapons of mass destruction’.

    Regards,

    Chuck(le)
    [What do you do when everything is illegal?]

  12. I just watched a confrence or whatever you call it on fox and the ATF declined to answer what was used inside the pressure cooker. This current gun powder rumer is coming from alleged reports of eye witnesses saying “there was a gun powder smell”

    • JDub, C, Matt in NC, or Mina may have a “Star Trek” reference for that info.

      Good job, knuckle heads. Get a grip.

    • anon,

      The force of the blast, large white cloud, faint orange glow, and sulfur smell that witnesses reported pretty much has to be black powder or a modern black powder substitute such as Pyrodex. And yes, a person who was a few feet away from one of the blasts said the specific word “sulfur” when describing the smell during an interview on a major network.

      I have been next to a muzzleloader when someone shot Pyrodex out of it. The sulfur smell was almost overpowering and the white cloud looked just the same as the photos/videos of the blast (although smaller and not as dense of course). The bomber used black powder or Pyrodex.

  13. We’re not just concerned with how it affects us (or at least, we shouldn’t be). The big picture concern here is a general erosion of rights. Already free speech is restricted when the secret service is conducting an escort service, and now the second amendment is under attack. Soon enough the other ones will erode as a means to ‘protect the citizens from evil’.

  14. The DHS warned about this some time ago, and the explosive was amonium nitrate, but I guess it sounds better if you use gunpowder. I expect them soon to say buckshot instead of ball bearings and “flattened bullets” instead of nails…

      • I suspect people type “LOL” just as a matter of saying something amuses them. I want you to know that I actually did laugh out loud at that. Thank you for the amusement!

        Semi-related: on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being common knowledge and 10 being completely surprised and caught off guard, finding out that Feinstein actually has a human face collection would rate about a 7. Dick Cheney would rate a 3.

        The fact that any of our leaders scores less than a 9 on that scale is scary.

  16. The brilliant reporting started out with four bombs — the two that went off, one in a hotel that was de-activated, and one that blew when it got hit with water from a “water cannon.” Then it went back down to two when the Boston PD and FD said so. First we had 20 dead, then two, now three. Then we had a Saudi in custody, then we had nobody in custody and the Saudi guy was questioned for 5 hours and released.

    Reporters don’t report — they rumor-monger. Frankly, I’d trust the Enquirer just as much as the Trib. And I don’t trust the Enquirer.

    • I just posted the same thing but I didn’t make it past the SPAM filter. So far every “insider” tip to the press has been shown to false.

      I must have gotten the SPAM treatment for suggesting that the blog was acting like an old time MSM outlet. Going with sensationalism in the lieu of facts.

    • I’m not sure I trust the so-called major media, let alone ANYTHING the government tells US these days.

      My point being that this administration lies through it’s toothy smiles. And the media supports them like Muslims support Mohammed.

      What do you do in a situation like that?

      I suggest relying more on new media and exercise patience in evaluating the information from multiple sources.

      There’ll be rumors of course. But in time, things will come to light that are the truth. Unless the government, with the help of the so-called mainstream media, is suppressing the information.

      Personally, I suspect the Muslims in this incident. And even the Saudi they say is no longer a ‘suspect’. Maybe they let him go to see where he goes and who he contacts.

      • Wishful thinking. The new media is made of the same stuff as the old media — people who have axis to grind and hobby horses to ride. The story will be out there but the signal to noise ratio will be too low for most people to find it.

    • My post on this same thing went into the spam or DHS bucket (one of the two) about 10-minutes ago. I did mention the name of the explosive that the pros are talking about and gave a link.

  17. Seen this coming for about 3-4 years. Don’t be surprised it happens again at say a bus or train station. Any public gathering really…

  19. I probably use 2 lb of powder per year. I’d use a little more if the Casa were closer to a rifle range. I find that reloading is a relaxing hobby, and a great way to teach my kids a little about how to do productive things with their hands. Just like I learned from my dad. I hope they find the explosive agent was not gunpowder, because I don’t want to have to worry that a bunch of panty-waist bureaucrats are going to limit my ability to reload. For the children, of course. Btw, do we know who died besides the 8-year old? Or do they not count since they are not kids?

    • Targeting a Republican Senator.

      As I’ve said oft enough in the past, “Liberals are more likely to commit murder.”

      That’s because they are Godless.

  21. BTW, there is a Santa Claus! I just received 500 9mm Speer 115gr GDHP bullets from the RCBS promotion!!

  23. Obviously we need sensible pressure cooker regulations…. no one needs a pressure cooker that can hold more then 8 cups of food…. and there’s no reason for high capacity assault cookers that can press to greater then 150 PSI, lets end this menace to society, I demand a plan.

  24. Oh joy I cant wait to hear about more gun control because as we all know, gun power is made of ground up firearms. (obvious sarcasm)

  25. Shut up would you? They haven’t figured it out yet. None of them have actually been in a gun store, and they haven’t a clue what you can buy there. Let’s keep it that way, shall we?

  26. Do the usual tinfoil dance, but these two links provide some food for thought. At the very least, if these two are correct, there was a heightened security presence over previous (post 2001) races they had run. And no one has mentioned that or even given the least nod to there being an elevated threat level prior to the race. Additionally, the Mobile track coach’s original comments were heavily edited to the current version; earlier he was very specific in stating that the drills were announced previous to the start of the race.

    It raises quite a few questions, not the least of which is who would “benefit” from allowing or even aiding an attack at this time and place. There is precedent for this that cannot be denied.

    http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/04/boston_marathon_explosions_hun.html

    “There were two explosions, one big one and one small one – right after the other,” she said. “At first, we thought it was a compressor. Then everybody started saying it was a bomb. Everybody just started trying to run. It’s hard to run after you run a marathon but there were people rushing to get out of the area.

    “When one bomb went off, you didn’t know if something else was going to go off.”

    Taylor said she noticed more of a military presence when the race with 27,000 runners started.

    “We noticed that they had military upon the buildings watching,” Taylor said. “I wonder if they had had some…that was kind of peculiar to me. That’s kind of weird to have military people up there with binoculars before a running event at the start.

    “It just didn’t look normal. It just didn’t look normal.”

    Several thousand runners were still on the course, Taylor said, and she estimated there was about a thousand spectators at the finish line when the explosions took place.

    “It was very crowded,” Taylor said. “It was very, very crowded.”

    http://www.local15tv.com/news/local/story/UM-Coach-Bomb-Sniffing-Dogs-Spotters-on-Roofs/BrirjAzFPUKKN8z6eSDJEA.cspx

    University of Mobile’s Cross Country Coach, who was near the finish line of the Boston Marathon when a series of explosions went off, said he thought it was odd there were bomb sniffing dogs at the start and finish lines.
    　
    “They kept making announcements to the participants do not worry, it’s just a training exercise,” Coach Ali Stevenson told Local 15.

    Stevenson said he saw law enforcement spotters on the roofs at the start of the race. He’s been in plenty of marathons in Chicago, D.C., Chicago, London and other major metropolitan areas but has never seen that level of security before.
    　
    “Evidently, I don’t believe they were just having a training exercise,” Stevenson said. “I think they must have had some sort of threat or suspicion called in.”

    CNN reports a state government official said there were no credible threats before the race.

    Stevenson had just finished the marathon before the explosions. Stevenson said his wife had been sitting in one of the seating sections where an explosion went off, but thankfully she left her seat and was walking to meet up with him.

    “We are just so thankful right now,” Stevenson said.

  27. It was NOT gun powder!
    BTW the BPD has already stated that it aint their fault TWO bombs were planted on a sidewalk and in a store front in plain view and no security team checked it out!

  28. Awaiting CNN’s reporters to have sympathy for the ones who did the bombing…aka terrorists.

  29. The president has stated, (in an emotionless reciting of empty rhetoric) that Justice will be done (as it has been done in the Benghazi Massacre)
    The Westburo Baptist Church says the death of 8 YOs and 144 injured is caused by “gays” and that God delivered the bombs.
    Both statements hold equal merit in my mind

  30. I’ll make judgments at least five or six days from now when all the hysterical hearsay the media is currently running on gives way to something resembling facts.

    • If the Boston PD or the FBI or DHS haven’t made a solid arrest of a credible suspect by Friday, they are going to look like REAL IDIOTS!!

      Then we’ll hear cries in Congress for banning pressure cookers.

  31. I find it hard to believe you could get an explosion of that magnitude from gun powder in a pressure cooker thrown in a backpack. Ammonium Nitrate was probably the material used.

      • Not anfo
        It’s an explosive useing household chems the ingredients and directions (including the pressure cooker) are in the first issue of Inspire Mag.
        The explosive was also mentioned in Farnham’s Freehold by R. Hienline, which, oddly enough has a plot where africans take over the planet and institute formalized cannabalism

    • Find it hard all you want. Some time back while at our cabin a lad down the road blew his Dad’s down while using an old school pressure cooker to cook seal. Drunk off his ass, went to bed, propane stove, water all ‘hissed’ out, four hours later – no cabin. We heard the boom two miles away in dense forest and saw the smoke from our doorstep. It looks dead on to me if you added gunpowder. I can see it now.

  33. This is a perfect smokescreen for politicians to sneak something past us while our attention is diverted. It is sad that we have to be on our guard over our rights at a time like this, versus mourning.. But, we must, because they won’t let a crisis goto waste 🙁

  34. Trust me people, this is a False-Flag. Prepare and beware.

    And to those pissin and moanin on here about not being sensitive to the 3 dead people, tell that to the husbands of the dead women and children Obama just bombed with drones. Believe me, as I have seen the carnage first-hand—the US has yet to suffer as much as they have.

  35. I remember after Oklahoma City, there was a call for chemical tracer tags to used in propellant powders to ID suspects, even though OC was done with a fertilizer bomb. The propellant makers said no because the tracer tags specified would “decompose with an exothermic reaction” after a few years on the shelf. Basically, the tracer tags would cause the powder to combust or explode spontaneously.

    Wait and see, but I can predict a run on propellant powders in anticipation of restrictions or bans.

  36. The terrorist Syrian FSA rebels grab every propane tank they can find: open up a 3″ or so hole and fill with ANFO ammonium nitrate, re-weld: “It can destroy a tank” (i.e. SAA T-72 supplied by russia) is what the FSA ‘group leader’ said.

    The fireball looked like every other iraq IED I’ve seen on youtube, etc. and they are NOT using black/gun powder.
    Two experts were on Hannity yesterday: one said he thinks peroxide based (Very popular in Palestine, btw) and the other one (former FBI) said “could be picric acid based.”
    A Fox affiliate yesterday at 2pm PST said the smell of gunpowder was reported by a witness and led report with ‘gunpowder used’…not enough for me. [however–amazing how close the bombs were to target, so I rescind my earlier that it couldn’t be black/gun powder].

  37. So now that the feds have released pictures of the suspects…. They are automatically considered “Armed and Dangerous “

Comments are closed.