[Anti-Bubba182]

This sounds like someone who played around with Anarchist Cookbook type materials or internet formulas and got caught with his toys.

[StJacques]

I'm actually wondering why we haven't seen more instances of this kind of thing given the number of whackos who now have access to every kind of destructive device and substance in this information age.

[dinasour]

Not to quibble, but ricin is not a nerve agent. It shuts down protein synthesis at the cellular level.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricin

It's still very deadly. As little as a single molecule is sufficient to kill a human cell.

And it is all natural.

[Phsstpok]

OK, I was leaning towards this being a badly reported and distorted story (which it still may be), specifically exagerating things and seemingly calling blasting caps "pipe bombs," then they mention 5 silencers.  Oops. Unless they're doing something like calling a potato a silencer (watch CSI more if you don't know what I mean) that would be a serious issue.

Then they drop these two little tid bits

His wife Carole Matthews had sought the protection orders while he was being treated for substance abuse, officials said.

and then

He recently left a job in Nashville's drug court testing laboratory

Do you think, maybe, he might have misinterpreted what his job was and thought he was supposed to be testing the drugs on himself?