They found more pipe bombs in a bedroom inside Mr. Spafford’s house, loosely stuffed in a backpack that bore a patch shaped like a hand grenade and a logo reading “#NoLivesMatter,” prosecutors said.

No Lives Matter is a nihilistic, far-right ideology that largely exists on encrypted online messaging apps like Telegram

    • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
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      5 days ago

      First paragraph of the article:

      A Virginia man was arrested this month with what federal prosecutors described in court papers on Monday as the largest cache of “finished explosive devices” ever found in the F.B.I.’s history.

      You don’t let something like that get to the point of killing people; you stop it before they set them off.

      • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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        5 days ago

        Thankfully for all of us, thought crime isn’t a crime. The only crime the article mentioned is the short barrel rifle.

        Yes, the arrest describes the bombs he built, but it doesn’t say he was charged with a crime related to them. Because that’s not a crime afaict

        • LePoisson@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          It’s absolutely a crime to possess a bunch of explosives, especially in the form of literal pipe bombs.

          Also, thought crime isn’t a crime but doing enough stuff to suggest you’ll be killing people and then carrying out and saying things that are akin to planning to kill people is. We can’t just wait around for mass murder to happen if it’s preventable.

        • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
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          5 days ago

          Under federal explosives law, it is illegal to manufacture, store, distribute, receive or transport explosive materials without a federal explosives license or permit (FEL/FEP).

          I’d be rather surprised if there was a permit issued for these pipe bombs.

          I don’t expect that he’s been arraigned (formally charged) with it yet because that usually takes a couple days, and today is a holiday. Prosecutors will likely file a superceding indictment once they’re back to work

          • Frostbeard@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            Not intimately familiar with US law, but an object like a pipe bomb usually falls within several “illegal categories”. Like you mentioned its most likey illegal production of an explosive article (changing the physical properties of the smokeless powder by putting it in a cylinder) and it probably is an illegal weapon as it acts like a grenade. Pluss “minor” things like illegal storage of said article and raw materials.

          • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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            5 days ago

            I put a bicycle chain in a bottle of solvent one time, and it exploded (not intentional)

            Did I break the law?

            Does every mentos and diet coke experiment mean kids need a license to make explosives?

            • socsa@piefed.social
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              4 days ago

              Hey, congratulations on discovering why statutory law and case law are both “the law,” and why criminal courts exist specifically engage in open ended fact finding.

            • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
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              5 days ago

              Stuff unlikely to kill and not made from materials likely to kill is generally legal. Pipe bombs don’t fall into that category

            • Frostbeard@lemmy.world
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              5 days ago

              Something that explodes is not necessarily an explosive. No hard definition really excists, but an explosive usually means an energetic material that reacts exothermic and is self sustaining (carries its own oxygen). High explosives detonates (reacts very fast) so while gas and other energetic materials might explode, they are way to slow and the speed of the explosion is defined by the exchange of oxygen with the surrounding air.