Or, what if he had told the old dude he needed ammonia and Clorox so he could make some phosgene gas he'd be haulded off to jail by your reasoning as a small sacrifice to freedom?
Hauled, sorry.
The last time I checked, lawnmower gas and clorox are legal to buy. Now if you were to store enough explosives to fill a Ryder truck, that may be another story.