this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2024
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Russian National Accused Of Making Weapons OF Mass Destruction In Philadelphia Home (www.ibtimes.com)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Officials responding to a house fire found 50 pounds of explosives, enough to have 'leveled the entire block of homes.'

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Unless there's more detail on what he was making, 50 pounds of explosive materiel is nowhere close to a WMD. Unless the 2000lb bombs being dropped on Palestinian refugee camps constitutes the use of WMD.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Pennsylvania law defines a weapon of mass destruction in the following way:

“Weapon of mass destruction.” A biological agent, bomb, chemical agent or nuclear agent.

https://codes.findlaw.com/pa/title-18-pacsa-crimes-and-offenses/pa-csa-sect-18-2716/

It's a bit of a "one of these things is not like the others" situation, but a bomb counts as a WMD in PA.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the most recent would be trump assassin had a prior wmd charge for machine gun possession.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

Let's be honest, if they were any less white, a firecracker would be considered a WMD.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I was trying to find what exactly he was cooking up as well. With a prior arrest for a similar sounding crime where he only got probation, and his mother claiming he just makes fireworks as a hobby, if all he was doing was making black powder, possession of over 10 pounds is a crime in Pennsylvania, especially along with fuses or other igniters.

Section 160.1 - Possession and storage of powder (a) Possession and storage of commercially manufactured black powder (in quantities not to exceed ten pounds), percussion caps, safety and pyrotechnic fuses, matches and friction primers, intended to be used solely for sporting, recreational, cultural purposes in antique firearms or antique devices as defined in § 921(a)(16) of Title 18 of the United States Code shall be exempt from regulation by the Department of Environmental Resources

If that's what he was doing, it is still pretty dangerous, but a Google search says it takes about 400 pounds of black powder to equal 1 stick of dynamite, so we likely aren't leveling the block.

If he's trying to cook up some high explosive from the Anarchist Cookbook or something, that's a bit of a different story though.