So Lots of Guns Is Normal, but Explosives Are Only for Terrorists?

[ProudLib72]

This is the article that began my thinking about this topic:

Former Kentucky Creation Museum employee busted for possession of C-4 explosives and arms cache
A Florida man who recently left his job as a public safety officer at the Kentucky Creation Museum has been taken into custody by law enforcement officials for possession of a cache of military grade explosives as well as weapons and silencers, reports the Miami Herald.

According to the report, Joel Ryals, 41, who also previously served as a law enforcement officer in Tampa Bay, was arrested on Wednesday after a package labeled C-4 was spotted on his property.

The Florida man was charged with 14 counts of possession of explosives requiring a license after being taken into custody by federal officials in Mississippi where Ryals was conducting K-9 training for local law enforcement officials.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/former-kentucky-creation-museum-employee-busted-possession-c-4-explosives-arms-cache/?comments=disqus

He had an "arms cache", but it was the package of C-4 that set the wheels in motion to search his residence. In fact, the article does not go into much detail about the firearms he was hoarding (oh, everyone has guns, big deal ). Yet a single block of C-4 is the red flag. So my question is, Why is it that an "arms cache" is viewed as normal while a single block of C-4 instantly signals "terror suspect"? Just think about that for a moment. If it had not been for someone spotting the plastic explosives, he could easily have been the next shooter or supplied the next shooter.

Forget about the C-4. He could have made a few bombs, yes, but I am willing to argue that he could do a lot more damage with an "arms cache". I think we need to stop normalizing this gun hoarding shit.

[Abu Pepe]

1. One can be baught legally and the other not

Your point is valid but so is the media's distinction. The fact a person would have to break the law to get C4 is a reason to make that distinction.

[ProudLib72]

2. But that is just my point. You can legally buy assault rifles

There is a disconnect in the logic. An assault rifle killed how many in Las Vegas? Just because the law makes a distinction does not mean the law is correct to make that distinction. An assault rifle is a deadly weapon the same as a block of C-4.

[Abu Pepe]

3. The disconect is at the policy level which I understand you are addressing

So Im not sure we disagree. im just defending the local news goobers for devoting more attention to the bomb making material in a serial bombing story. If there had been a mass shooting, then we would sadly hear about the guns.

[ProudLib72]

4. I don't think we disagree.

Yes, a disconnect at the policy level is accurate. This is policy driven by RW/NRA ideology that, in turn, affects our own ideology once it enters into law. Legal = "good", illegal = "evil".

I'm not saying it should be legal for people to buy C-4 at Walmart and use it to get rid of gophers. Rather, I am saying that we are trained to view guns as normal because they are legal. What if we were trained to see guns in the same way we see packages of C-4?

[Abu Pepe]

5. no disagreement. i grew up in Texas and have lived in both deep red

red rural Texas and deep Blue Travis Co./Austin and it will probably be a while. I had grandparents who hunted squirrels regularly for food. Guns were pretty common. I never even saw one of those military knockoff high capacity magazine high caliber school shredders until the 90s. With that came the NRA campaign to convince country people that such weapons had always been part of their "heritage". So the NRA/gunmakers exploited a genuine "gunny" way of life to create a RW subculture. All those rednecks were Roosevelt/Kennedy/Johnson Democrats at one point. Eventually the scraps from they table got more rare, angry talk radio politicized them in the 90s even before the internet was common. They went from New Deal to Great Society to Rush Limbaugh to Breitbart or worse.

And it wasn't guns only. They didnt like hippies or Jane Fonda Jane Fonda either. Multigenerational cultural reactiories. Still dont really mind "government handouts" to whites.

Sorry, I rant. But Im watching childhood friends organically form into an all American fascisist movement and they dont even know it.

Also, Russian governments of all stripe have been a menace for over a century. And in fact we didnt beat Hitler. They did. Now they ape him and so do many of us.

Weird. Something in our political culture changed in the 90s with the arrival of Gingrich and company. Remember the term limit guys?