Small amounts of potassium nitrate, mercury, peroxide and sulfur were found inside the residence.
I wonder what the BATF would think of the ammonium nitrate and sulfur in my barn? Or the bottle of hydrogen peroxide and old mercury thermometers in my house? Geez! The farm supply outlet is close to my house.......I'm a goner!/sarc
My roommate in college was a chemistry major whose family owned a farm in rural Minnesota. He told me that it was common practice for farmers who wanted to get rid of tree stumps or create an “instant pond” for watering their livestock to blast them out using a mixture of ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel (the same ingredients used in the Oklahoma City Federal Bldg bombing) detonated with blasting caps, all readily available from local farm supply stores. I asked him why they didn’t just use dynamite (also readily available). He said the fuel + fertilizer mixture was a lot cheaper, though sometimes they did use dynamite for the tree stumps, because of the convenience. This frugality seemed reasonable to me.
I thought these were interesting facts, but never considered myself threatened by my country neighbors having easy access to high explosives. Likewise, all the neighbors I’ve gotten to know in this country area near the Blue Ridge mountains keep a variety of potentially dangerous equipment, including firearms, handy for various purposes, but this fact, if anything, makes me feel more secure rather than less secure. Neighbors tend to take care of each other out here.
I guess the folks in NYC have a different class of neighbors.