TERRORISM : BOMBS BOMBING BOMBERS : LAW : ORGANIZATIONS: NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION : GUNPOWDER: A Better Way to Track a Bomber

[David P. Dillard]

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TERRORISM :

BOMBS BOMBING BOMBERS :
LAW :

ORGANIZATIONS: NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION (NRA) :

GUNPOWDER:

A Better Way to Track a Bomber

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A Better Way to Track a Bomber

Tiny plastic markers called 'taggants' can help authorities trace
explosives. But they're not used today because of one formidable opponent:
the NRA.

By Tom Zoellner and Sam Kleiner

April 28, 2013

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/
la-oe-zoellner-taggants-boston-nra-20130428,0,3806681.story

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A shorter URL for the above link:

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http://tinyurl.com/cyguuwm

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The mayhem in Boston the week of April 15 was a reminder of how an
American city can be paralyzed by a homemade bomb. The same kinds of
improvised explosive devices that menaced U.S. troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan can easily be deployed by freelance terrorists or madmen
trying to send a message, incite panic or just create a media spectacle.

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The Tsarnaev brothers were identified because of surveillance videotape,
but the FBI might have been able to do it faster if tiny plastic markers
had been part of the small-arms propellant packed into the pressure-cooker
bombs. These little chips, called "taggants," have been around for close
to 40 years, and their crime-solving capability is impressive. But they're
not used today because of one formidable opponent: the National Rifle
Assn.

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The idea behind taggants is both benign and ingenious, and it can be
credited to a chemistry professor and former 3M employee named Richard
Livesay, who had been angered over the 1970 leftist bombing at the
University of Wisconsin that killed a graduate student. Explosions always
create residue, and Livesay figured out that gunpowder could be seeded
with bits of melamine plastic, which cannot be destroyed or melted. Each
particle is about a tenth of a millimeter across and contains a layering
of eight to 10 colors. They look like pepper flakes, and the specific
color signature can be read with an infrared scanner, telling an
investigator where that batch of explosive was produced and perhaps even
the retail store where it was purchased.

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snip

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As for NRA opposition, he said: "Frankly I don't know why that would
bother anyone tracing a product back to its manufacturer." When we asked
the NRA last week if it stood by its decades of opposition to taggants, it
declined to make a comment.

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There is no doubt that requiring taggants would result in a marginally
higher shelf price for gunpowder and dynamite; the ATF estimated the cost
at 2 cents per pound of explosives in the mid-1970s, and that ratio has
not changed. Although this isn't an apples-to-apples comparison, it's
worth noting that economists have said closing down Boston for a day cost
about $333 million; a few extra pennies are a bargain by comparison.

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The NRA also suggested that taggants would be useless distractions to an
investigation "like finding a needle in a haystack" was the phrase a gun
lobbyist used but there is a case on the books that proves the opposite.

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Federal agents were experimenting with taggants in 1979. They inserted
them into explosives sold from a West Virginia plant. Later that year a
steelworker in Baltimore named Nathan Allen was killed by a crude dynamite
bomb placed under the seat of his truck. Taggants were found at the scene,
and federal agents were able to narrow down a list of possible retailers,
who then helped them figure out purchasers of the particular batch of
explosives used. The list included Allen's uncle, who suspected that Allen
was having an affair with his wife. The uncle was convicted, and a federal
judge later noted that "the use of taggants in explosives rests upon
well-established scientific principles."

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The complete article may be read at the URL above.

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