What's the fundamental difference? Do you think that the charges would be any different if he were on a 20 acre lot?
The police wouldn't have even gotten involved had he not attracted the attention of his neighbors. Given the kind of pyrotechnical craziness that is reported to occur in the countryside from time to time, it is likely that twenty acres would sufficiently isolate the homestead and disperse/muffle the sound. (Actually 20 acres sounds kind of puny for a survivalist redoubt, come to think of it.)
That, of course, brings us back to the neighborhood where this occurred. I don't have a list of rules concerning being a successful urban survivalist, but I'm willing to bet not attracting attention to yourself would be towards the top.
But you are right in that, once the police are involved, they are going to give it to him with both barrels urban, suburban, or rural. The twelve year old kid with the guns wouldn't concern me (well, unless he has hit puberty...) since, once properly trained, they can handle a gun as responsibly as anyone else.
But the several hundred pounds of mystery chemicals would bother me. Prima fascia, that sounds like the home brewing of explosives and that is something I definitely do not want my next door neighbor doing in my townhouse complex.
The explosives, especially making them. Endangering you and yours is one thing, but endangering the folks in the next townhouse/apartment is quite another. But no the charges would be no different
The explosives, especially making them. Endangering you and yours is one thing, but endangering the folks in the next townhouse/apartment is quite another. But no the charges would be no different