Plan To Limit Explosives Fizzles Out Bill Would Also Have Banned Bottles, Mousetraps, Ammo

Sat., Feb. 24, 1996

Lindsay Woodcock Staff writer

A proposed law to ban possession of explosive devices or components of explosives was killed Friday because of vague language.

Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas was backing the proposal because there is no current state law prohibiting the possession of dangerous chemical substances.

Anyone can carry around a pipe bomb, Douglas said, but police can’t do anything about it because of the lack of state statutes.

“It (the bill) reflects a frustration on the part of prosecutors and law enforcement over the inability to make arrests of people in possession of homemade explosive devices,” said Douglas.

But several former law enforcement officers told the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee that anyone possessing a bottle of vodka in a paper bag or a mousetrap could be committing a felony under the plan.

Molotov cocktails, said Michael Vickers, a former police officer, could be made out of a bottle and a bag. A mousetrap and a .22-caliber shell can make a detonator.

Those kinds of loopholes, said Vickers, can endanger the public and leave room for courtroom headaches.

The language in the bill stating that even carrying components of explosives constitutes a felony also disturbed Brian Judy of the National Rifle Association. Ammunition components could fall under that section, said Judy.

, DataTimes

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Plan To Limit Explosives Fizzles Out Bill Would Also Have Banned Bottles, Mousetraps, Ammo

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

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