It only takes about a tenth grade level of understanding physics and chemistry to make a decent device from scratch. With the access Americans have to over the counter explosives (tannerite) and arduinos you only need enough of an education to know how to copy and paste code. Relying on people being uneducated isn’t a good strategy because these things are extremely easy to make. I work with some people that I question whether or not they can read who build effective devices with little to no effort.

I take apart bombs, missiles and other explosive ordnance for a living, and sometimes we have to wrap certain components or fuzes in aluminum foil to lower the effects of RF on them for transport. The general rule I follow is if you could put it underwater and water would get in, then radio frequencies won’t be deadened. So if she wants to be protected then she would have to create a watertight seal around her head and do us all a favor.

So why bring it up? It has nothing to do with the comment and nothing to do with the topic of the original post.

Maybe being the kind of person who refers to it as sloppy 1/80s has something to do with it.

Oh absolutely, which is the worrisome part of all of this to me. Someone doesn’t even need to build something good, just good enough.

Funny (but not funny, as it was a tragedy) that you should bring up the OKC bombings as an example of building a good bomb. McVeigh’s bomb didn’t work properly and failed to fully high order, it was just so much ANFO that it didn’t even matter.

They could very likely come up with something very functional, making IEDs, and even cooking your own explosive fillers is exceptionally easy, you really only need a very basic understanding of chemistry and circuitry (like grade 9 or 10 level). If extremists hiding in caves in Afghanistan could make consistent and effective devices with HME, then Joe Redneck with Internet access and over the counter access to Ammonium Nitrate Aluminum (Tannerite, which is legal in most states and often sold at gun stores) can probably do it too.