MSU students arrested

[bigbang]

Four Michigan State Univ students were arrested for having " a commercial explosive device" and trying to do property damage. Looks like these 4 Einsteins somehow got hold of some salutes that had the lift charge removed and the QM replaced with about 4 inch of visco. They then set one off in somebodys front yard about 1 block from the police station in East Lansing. Got nabbed about 10 minutes later with 2 more ready to go. The picture is hard to get an exact size but looked to be at least a 3 inch salute. I wish I was better working the computer but the article is on detnews.com. Can someone help by posting a link?

[DoctorG]

Sure
Link

At least they knew enough to remove the quick...otherwise it'd be quite a different story we'd be reading

[pipebomb]

here ya go.

edit
ok never mind Doc beat me to it.

[Shooting Star Pyro]

Sure
Link

At least they knew enough to remove the quick...otherwise it'd be quite a different story we'd be reading

Looks like a 2" Salute, when compared to the pen placed in front of them. Looks like 4 transfers from Michigan State University to Michigan State Penitentuary are coming soon!

[weatherman]

The devices had been modified so they would explode more quickly, Johnstone said.

Putting visco on them had the effect of slowing the detonation down not increasing it. If the QM was still attached they would have detonated in their hands. These are just kid's how the hell did they get a hold of these.

[mgh1980]

Punk ass kids

Read through the article, and a few things I caught:
1) commercial grade explosives: never saw a 2 in salute used for blasting???
2) shot out of a steel tube???? I understand there are steel mortars out there, but used for a 2 in salute, maybe a multibreak shell with a decent sized lift, ok??
3) directly taken from the article: 'In one case, a three-foot hole was blown out of a steel trash bin, he said' really? That's some salute.

this is just another example of the news media, in my opinion, finding any way they could bash fireworks. These kids are morons, plain and simple.

The salutes look like either 2" or 1.75", I'm leaning more towards 2"

I agree, how did they get the salutes?

I'll finish by calling them punk ass kids again.

I bet you that guy was trying to impress those girls.

[PyroMania]

One looks like she's 12 years old.

If you click on the picture of the shells, it states "officers found two mortars in the suspects' vehicle"

[stuntborg]

Looks to me like they were bigger than your standard 1 3/4 shell.

Forget the mistakes in the paper for the moment. They don't really matter. What does suck for us is that some idiot kids got their hands on some 1.3 fireworks and chucked them at someones house. This definately does not help us to keep pyro legal. Doesn't help display companies. Doesn't help those with permits. In all ways this just isn't good for us.

[mgh1980]

One looks like she's 12 years old.

If you click on the picture of the shells, it states "officers found two mortars in the suspects' vehicle"

The one girl with the brown hair does look like she's 12.

I think they're referring to the shells. My biggest pyro pet peve is when people call shells mortars. This just bugs the hell out of me, never knew why, just does.

[pipebomb]

Putting visco on them had the effect of slowing the detonation down not increasing it. If the QM was still attached they would have detonated in their hands. These are just kid's how the hell did they get a hold of these.

I think what they meant was no time fuse and lift charge so the visco was placed right in to the shell.

Looks to me like they were bigger than your standard 1 3/4 shell.

Forget the mistakes in the paper for the moment. They don't really matter. What does suck for us is that some idiot kids got their hands on some 1.3 fireworks and chucked them at someones house. This definately does not help us to keep pyro legal. Doesn't help display companies. Doesn't help those with permits. In all ways this just isn't good for us.

agreed. let's go lynch the little bastages.

[mgh1980]

Looks to me like they were bigger than your standard 1 3/4 shell.

Forget the mistakes in the paper for the moment. They don't really matter. What does suck for us is that some idiot kids got their hands on some 1.3 fireworks and chucked them at someones house. This definately does not help us to keep pyro legal. Doesn't help display companies. Doesn't help those with permits. In all ways this just isn't good for us.

I agree, but fireworks being used improperly occurs all over. Look at some of the you tube vids out there with people throwing salutes into water, lighting salutes without them being in a mortar, I even saw one where they put a salute in a deer decoy. Again, you tube, the enemy of any law abiding pyro!!!

Who knows how these kids got 1.3, or even had the thought to put visco on them. I bet more people will be getting in trouble over here.

I'm all for a lynching

[Shooting Star Pyro]

Media misinforming again.

Yes, a 2" salute when put in a small steel thrash can can take the side of it off! I am betting that this is the trash can they are talking about


and if it was, a 2" salute can tear a hole that large into it.

Punk ass kids

Read through the article, and a few things I caught:
1) commercial grade explosives: never saw a 2 in salute used for blasting???
2) shot out of a steel tube???? I understand there are steel mortars out there, but used for a 2 in salute, maybe a multibreak shell with a decent sized lift, ok??
3) directly taken from the article: 'In one case, a three-foot hole was blown out of a steel trash bin, he said' really? That's some salute.

this is just another example of the news media, in my opinion, finding any way they could bash fireworks. These kids are morons, plain and simple.

The salutes look like either 2" or 1.75", I'm leaning more towards 2"

I agree, how did they get the salutes?

I'll finish by calling them punk ass kids again.

I bet you that guy was trying to impress those girls.

[mgh1980]

Oh, ok I thought they were talking about one of those large steel garbage dumpsters. A 3 foot hole in that can would annhilate it.

[weatherman]

Who knows how these kids got 1.3, or even had the thought to put visco on them. I bet more people will be getting in trouble over here.

I'm all for a lynching

I'm gonna take a wild guess here and say they didn't make them. That means there is somebody out there with either a broken lock on their mag or falsified records.

[WildWilli]

Look at the size of those mortars!

[Marty]

What I love about where and what I teach is that we can blow the whole frigging county and buildings within to kingdom come, cuz we are learning!

[PyroMania]

By tomorrow, it will be "These large explosive devices could have taken down the house, which in turn, may have caused a chain reaction to every house on the block."

They do need to find out where these kids got them from. Stunt said it best above.

[mgh1980]

I bet one of those kids knew someone who knew someone, who had these high explosives that could easily level a city block, and is currently being tested for bunker buster duties in Afghanistan

what a waste of good salutes

Seriously, I agree with Stunt's sentiment, they need to figure out how these kids got these

[weatherman]

By tomorrow, it will be "These large explosive devices could have taken down the house, which in turn, may have caused a chain reaction to every house on the block."

They do need to find out where these kids got them from. Stunt said it best above.

I agree completely, they do need to find where these devices came from because it seems that southern Michigan has a problem with someone putting their 1.3g product right out on the street to the highest bidder. you recall this thread about two months ago that Big No No started. It even said in tonights article that they had a problem in East Lansing this summer with people detonating 1.3. This is the type of thing that we shouldn't just brush under the rug. If someone is manufacturing and distributing or just offloading old product to the street it's a bad thing IMO that's needs to be dealt with.

[Firecracker-Jim]

i bet these dumb kids posted a video on youtube of their illegal activities.

I totally agree that they should ask where the kids got them from...their are kids running around out there with a 5"shells to!

Jim

[Randall]

They showed them destroying them and talking to a state trooper last night on the news. Run of the mill shells/cake insert with white/silver glitter. By the law, a firecracker is a bomb, if you intend it to be. We are talking about MSU here guys.

[countryboy7978]

Sometimes I just shake my head at the stuff I read here..... I'm shaking it because of what the dumb ass kids did and I'm also shaking it at how it seems that some of us live in a dream world or at least like pretending we do here. Now I don't mean to pick on anyone in particular but those shells do look like 1.75" or 2" shells. Many of which are available with a 1.4 label....sorry guys but yes they are pretty easy to find IF you look in the right places. It's not that surprising what some 19 or 20 year old kids were able to get. Please don't act so shocked that they got them or that they planned to make mischief with them. Boys will be boys... right or wrong....boys will in fact be boys!

Oh and who said it was 1.3 anyway??? Oh yeah the media!!! And we all know they are the fireworks experts when it comes to directional shooting, block leveling, hand mangling, dumpster destroying fireworks. Riiiiight.

[weatherman]

Sometimes I just shake my head at the stuff I read here..... I'm shaking it because of what the dumb ass kids did and I'm also shaking it at how it seems that some of us live in a dream world or at least like pretending we do here. Now I don't mean to pick on anyone in particular but those shells do look like 1.75" or 2" shells. Many of which are available with a 1.4 label....sorry guys but yes they are pretty easy to find IF you look in the right places. It's not that surprising what some 19 or 20 year old kids were able to get. Please don't act so shocked that they got them or that they planned to make mischief with them. Boys will be boys... right or wrong....boys will in fact be boys!

Oh and who said it was 1.3 anyway??? Oh yeah the media!!! And we all know they are the fireworks experts when it comes to directional shooting, block leveling, hand mangling, dumpster destroying fireworks. Riiiiight.

Standard pen length in the US is 5.5 - 6.0 in. Looks very much to me like those are 3 inch shells. All the kids were 18 years old and 3 of them were girls. I did a lot of stupid shit growing up but I never purposely tried to blow up someone's yard. When I did happen to get my hands on some of these I went as far out of town as I could to blow them off. There is something wrong with an individual that thinks destroying someone else's property is OK and fun. Guess my parents just raised me better.

[bigbang]

You're right Randall, they are from MSU. The UM students wouldn"t know which end of the fuse to light! Seriously, it's hard to read the mind of an 18 year old & impart any intent into their actions. I think the lawyer will say-and probably with some small truth, that they didn't know the power and didn't intend to destroy, only make noise. I lived up on that block when I was in school there and it is 90% or higher student rentals. They may have even known the people living in that house. News reports said the cops thought they were 4 or 5 inch - no way.

[countryboy7978]

I don't agree with the felony charges though. Nobody got hurt and the worst that propably happened (or trust me the media would have reported it) was some missing grass where the shell went off.

Was it stupid and careless...yes, but was the intent to cause harm? Probably not. More than likely a few beers and "hey lets go scare the shit of of the guys/gals in that house. You got those fireworks still right? Lets go!!! It will be so funny."

I'm not defending their actions as smart or reasonable but to put a bunch of college freshman in jail or ruin their lives with felony charges over what's likely a prank is not ,but in today's society explosives are only viewed as evil and to be used with malicious intent. It's sad that we can't look beyond that.

Oh yeah...and if we had decently loud class C firecrackers kids likely wouldn't be modifying B shells to make "loud firecrackers."

[wing commander]

I think if they were your family you all would say they were just trying to scare the friends in the house.Put the shoe on your foot and then tell me you want your children or sisters and brother in the jail house.

[Randall]

Standard pen length in the US is 5.5 - 6.0 in.

-wtf...

The UM students wouldn"t know which end of the fuse to light!

-wouldn't even bother with the fuse. I'd be teaching the coeds which end of the "wick" to....

I agree completely, they do need to find where these devices came from because it seems that southern Michigan has a problem with someone putting their 1.3g product right out on the street to the highest bidder.

Great, another Pu wanna be rule enforcer.

[r1dermon]

I think if they were your family you all would say they were just trying to scare the friends in the house.Put the shoe on your foot and then tell me you want your children or sisters and brother in the jail house.

yeah, on the flip side though, if you were chilling in your house and a rowdy car full of college kids comes cruising up the street and throws a 2" salute in your yard...you're not going to be pissed?

me personally, i live far back from the street, so even pedro martinez couldn't throw something far enough to reach my house...but if something landed 3 feet from my window and blew up like a 2" salute, im calling the cops, because that's BS.

i say lock em up for a while, 30 days and probation, on misdemeanor charges. no need for felony...but they do need to learn from this somehow.

[countryboy7978]

I agree with R1 that they should be punished but let the punishment fit the crime. Plain and simple it was a prank more than likely, and one where it seems nobody got hurt. A decent fine and make them pay for any damages and be done with it.

It's like when they expell grammer school kids for bringing a swiss army knife to class to show friends and show no intent to harm anyone because of a "zero tolerance" for weapons. Or some poor highschool sophmore gets 10 days suspension and a drug treatment program because she took a midol for cramps. It's a messed up world.

Yet some piece of shit terrorist can spew all kinds of hate while being in OUR military and nobody does anything about it because God forbid we offend a muslim. Then some day he decides to wage the Jihad on OUR unarmed soldiers and everyone asks WHY?????

[fireworkfan504]

I agree also I don't think they need to bring felony Charges against them but,they do need to do something like a fine and make them pay for the damage they caused these kids in my opinion just did something really really stupid there is no need to throw the book at them even though they did something they should have never done.