Those who will trade liberty for safety will have neither. (Ben Franklin)
Misdimeander prank, yes. Terrorist threat, no.
When I was an inquisitive mind in high school and in college, my buddies and I made and detonated many such harmless devices. It is actually part of the engineering learning process. It is also how the US government gets its own explosives experts.
Americans and their "leaders" seem completely incapable of measured and appropriate response.
I would rather they treat this for the prank it is rather than an opportunity to permanently jail yet another young American. That would be the adult response. The "rather be safe than sorry" stance is a sheild for the uniformed and weak, not for those who understand youth who seek "out of band" knowledge.
I think the reason we react so quickly is because of the fear of being sued for every misstep - someone gets injured and the school has laughed it off as a prank and suddenly the school is at fault.
We did a lot of things differently in the past -
That depends on what the "chemicals" were. Even then, salvage fusing is not something "pranksters" generally do. If wouldn't have been so funny if the device had taken off some fingers of, or blinded, the custodian who found them.
So did I, but I didn't leave them around, "booby trapped", for other people to find. Did you? And mine weren't harmless. Even a cherry bomb or M-80 isn't harmless if misused.
Times change, life is different because of terrorism, the people have spoken, so experiment at your on risk.
I too practiced with black powder in the 70's. Even then the gun shop owners denied me purchase of quanties because they were suspicous of my motives.
I have a freind in that area that has relatives in college. I don't want them hurt or killed because of an "experiment".
"The rather be safe than sorry" stance is a shield for the uninformed and weak, not for those who understand youth who seek "out of band" knowledegr."
That is such a crock of horsesh*t. Go back to class sonny.