Are you sure about that?
The two fellows were cited for using explosives without a license. What else do you need to know? I suspect that the NHP is turning a blind eye to the use of exploding targets.
Here's the Nebraska Law definition:
003.04
"Explosives" shall mean any chemical compound, mixture, or device, the primary or common purpose of which is to function by explosion, including but not limited to dynamite and other high explosives, black - 3 - powder, pellet powder, initiating explosives, detonators, safety fuses, squibs, detonating cord, igniter cord, and ignitors, and fireworks or devices containing more than one hundred thirty milligrams of explosive composition, but shall not include permissible fireworks as defined in Section 28-1241, Neb. Rev. Stat., gasoline, kerosene, naptha, turpentine, benzine, acetone, ethyl ether, benzol, fixed ammunition and primers for small arms, safety fuses, or matches.
Federal Law allows you to store up to, IIRC, 20 lbs of powder for reloading purposes without a license. Nebraska Law follows suit, but to play with explosives, as the law I quoted shows, you must apply for a license and pay the fee, of course. Or, limit your use per device to 130 mg or less.
I don't know how much tannerite (ANAL) is in an exploding target, but from what I've seen 130 mg of Tannerite will produce quite a bang when hit with an HV bullet. It produces a lot of smoke as well. My understanding of the law is that if your exploding devices contain more than 130 mg you need to obtain a license to explode them. The fellows in Kearney were obviously setting off 250 gram charges of Tannerite, or larger, which can shake windows a mile away and be heard three to 5 miles away, or more.
Tannerite is a mixture of two chemical. It is not as powerful, pound per pound as C4 or dynamite, but it is considerably more powerful than black powder or even nitrocellulose. Here is what the FBI says about it:
http://info.publicintelligence.net/FBI-ExplodingTargets.pdf(U) The individual components of ETs are not regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) because they do not meet the definition of “explosives” outlined in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 27 §555.11. Once the binary components are mixed, the result is an explosive material and subject to ATF regulatory requirements.
(U) Persons manufacturing explosives for their own personal, nonbusiness use only (e.g., personal target practice) are not required to have a federal explosives license (FEL) or permit. However, individuals or companies must obtain a federal explosives manufacturing license if they intend to engage in the business of manufacturing binary explosives for sale or distribution or for their own business use, such as targets for demonstration or product testing.
(U) Currently, anyone can purchase ETs without an FEL and have them shipped without expensive hazardous materials shipping fees or placards. This makes ETs relatively easy and cheap to purchase in gun stores, sporting goods stores, online marketplaces, and auction houses. ETs are also available online directly from manufacturers. Many retailers sell ETs in individual half-pound containers, which cost approximately $5 each or $10 per pound. Some manufacturers sell bulk bags of up to 50 pounds at a cost of roughly $3.50 per pound.
By comparison, fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate retails for 19 cents per pound.
...
(U//FOUO) Individuals have attempted to acquire ammonium nitrate by removing it from cold packs, a nonregulated commercially available product. In 2010, a Knoxville, Tennessee, resident was arrested and subsequently convicted for constructing an IED using this method. Among the recovered evidence were three cold compresses and three cold compress boxes from three well known drug stores, according to FBI information.
There are videos on YouTube showing how to make Tannerite using cold packs. The FBI report includes several incident reports that led to arrests and prison terms for abusing Tannerite.
A half pound charge of Tannerite on a car will blow the hood tens of feet into the air. The FBI is rightly worried about terrorists using Tannerite with blasting caps triggered by cellphones to destroy targets. It is the explosive of choice by terrorists in Afghanistan when C4 is not available.
A 50 lb drum of Tannerite properly placed could bring down just about any building in Lincoln, destroy a power station, or a water pumping station, a wind turbine, the roof of a colosseum, or the control room of a nuclear power station. Tannerite doesn't burn fast, it detonates, so it doesn't need to be confined like a pressure cooker bomb would. Had the Boston bombers used Tannerite in those devices instead of fireworks powder the death and injury count would have been a LOT higher.
Several states have outlawed Tannerite specifically because of its potential danger, and many have outlawed purchase of Ammonium Nitrate because it can be used to make so many kinds of explosives, including tannerite. I think it is only a matter of time before most states, including Nebraska, make Tannerite illegal to make or possess without strict controls. In 1970 I drove to a construction site in Council Bluffs and purchased a box of 50 sticks of 40% AN Dynamite, with a dozen electrical blasting caps to blow a dozen tree stumps out of the ground. My only ID was the credit card I used to pay for it. No license, no forms, nothing. You can't do that today.
However, AN is easy to make from Urea, obtained from dried urine. Household Ammonium Hydroxide can also be reacted with urine or urea, or oxidized by itself to make AN. A determined terrorist could easily make all the AN and AL they need to construct a Tannerite explosive device. They'd still need to find a blasting cap stronger than a No. 8 which can be set off by a cellphone answering a call.
