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Why the he** can you buy Thermite on Ebay?
- Thread starter waloshin
- Start date
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jknight8907
macrumors 6502a
jav6454
macrumors Core
1. Very dangerous stuff
2. Some states require certain handling and laws concerning said stuff
3. Any mixing is potentially hazardous.
4. eBay != Terrorist Emporium Shop
jknight8907
macrumors 6502a
You can go to your local farm store and buy fertilizer, and stop off for some diesel fuel on your way home. Or visit any number of websites and physical stores and purchase aluminum powder and iron oxide separately. Some dude selling 'thermite kits' on ebay does not change the availability of dangerous stuff to people.
Unless states pressure eBay in preventing sale of specific items, stuff like this will continue to happen. Also tracking the sale of this stuff is easy considering eBay forces users to use Paypal... easy paper trail for DHS.
In my opinion if you go after stopping sales of one item, would-be-terrorists would go after the next best thing. Spawning a slippery slope of other restrictions won't solve the issue as it'll bring up other crazy ideas for politicians to put into place. While we're at it how about the government requiring citizens to be licensed to own a computer due to botnet cyber-terrorism, how about the government to require keyloggers on all computers in the name of national security, how about all ex-military are considered possible terrorists, how about CCTV in peoples homes in the name of security as terrorists must build bombs in their homes, how about rounding up middle eastern people like the US did to the Japanese during WW2 in fear of terrorists, how about citizens being required to have an ID chip embedded into their skin in the name of security to enter government buildings/travel, how about being stripped naked/cavity searches at the airport and flying naked or Convict Air approved clothing?
Sorry for the rant, once any government gets a power trip they'll go as far as possible until public outcry. Don't be surprised if a government wants to restrict lemons, limes or oranges... acidic fruits can have other uses too 😛
In my opinion if you go after stopping sales of one item, would-be-terrorists would go after the next best thing. Spawning a slippery slope of other restrictions won't solve the issue as it'll bring up other crazy ideas for politicians to put into place. While we're at it how about the government requiring citizens to be licensed to own a computer due to botnet cyber-terrorism, how about the government to require keyloggers on all computers in the name of national security, how about all ex-military are considered possible terrorists, how about CCTV in peoples homes in the name of security as terrorists must build bombs in their homes, how about rounding up middle eastern people like the US did to the Japanese during WW2 in fear of terrorists, how about citizens being required to have an ID chip embedded into their skin in the name of security to enter government buildings/travel, how about being stripped naked/cavity searches at the airport and flying naked or Convict Air approved clothing?
Sorry for the rant, once any government gets a power trip they'll go as far as possible until public outcry. Don't be surprised if a government wants to restrict lemons, limes or oranges... acidic fruits can have other uses too 😛
jknight8907
macrumors 6502a
I suppose, if one click on ebay is really that much easier than 2 clicks on a hundred other websites where you can buy it separately.
Simple enough to make tons of it if you have iron and aluminum rusting away laying around, that being said any hick with 10 cars rusting away on their front lawn could be a potential terrorist.
Lord Blackadder
macrumors P6
Thermite is pretty easy to make. I don't think banning their sale on eBay would make us any safer.
What about all the industrial supply places that sell this stuff anyway? What should we do, ban rust? Sounds a bit excessive doesn't it?
What about all the industrial supply places that sell this stuff anyway? What should we do, ban rust? Sounds a bit excessive doesn't it?
Consultant
macrumors G5
bartelby
macrumors Core
Don't know which is worse the pun or the fact it wasn't irony, but coincidence...
Consultant
macrumors G5
Google ads use context specific keywords to serve you ads. Thus the more you say
why would ebay sell Thermite, who would buy Thermite from ebay?
more likely you are to see a thermite ad.
jav6454
macrumors Core
Mom and pop store is different than online. Online anyone, but I do mean anyone (even a 12 year old) can buy thermite. On the other hand on a brick n mortar store you have more control over who gets he stuff.
Thermite isn't explosive--it's incendiary, highly stable, and requires a lot of heat to light mixing the powder together creates no reaction you need a magnesium fuse or a blowtorch to get it going otherwise junkyards full of the stuff (scrap metal piles iron mixed with aluminum oxidizing in the elements) would catch on fire on a regular basis every time you had a spark.
Thermite is useful in welding and cutting in places where normal equipment cannot gain access, but requires a pretty hefty amount of energy to ignite and you would have to have at least a couple hundred pounds of it in the right container to make it actually explode the material itself doesn't, gunpowder doesn't explode on it's own it burns rapidly too. It's where you stick it that matters.
Even harmless grain used for food is a potential threat on its own using the reasoning given here. Put it in a container it kicks up enough powder inside that container add one spark and Kaboom! That's why you don't hear of those big grain towers catching fire in the mid west but rather exploding very loudly.
Improper storage of almost any substance creates the hazard not the substances themselves.
🙄 The first time I heard of loose change I thought it was a story about panhandlers (likely mentally ill), then the first time I heard about zeitgiest I thought it was a story about neo nazis (definitely mentally ill).
Turns out it was a total different group of crazies completely but still likely to eventually wind up in one of the two other categories--either ending up sleeping under a bridge with a baseball cap lined in tinfoil, or hold up on some mountain compound surrounded by cops.
Thermite is useful in welding and cutting in places where normal equipment cannot gain access, but requires a pretty hefty amount of energy to ignite and you would have to have at least a couple hundred pounds of it in the right container to make it actually explode the material itself doesn't, gunpowder doesn't explode on it's own it burns rapidly too. It's where you stick it that matters.
Even harmless grain used for food is a potential threat on its own using the reasoning given here. Put it in a container it kicks up enough powder inside that container add one spark and Kaboom! That's why you don't hear of those big grain towers catching fire in the mid west but rather exploding very loudly.
Improper storage of almost any substance creates the hazard not the substances themselves.
🙄 The first time I heard of loose change I thought it was a story about panhandlers (likely mentally ill), then the first time I heard about zeitgiest I thought it was a story about neo nazis (definitely mentally ill).
Turns out it was a total different group of crazies completely but still likely to eventually wind up in one of the two other categories--either ending up sleeping under a bridge with a baseball cap lined in tinfoil, or hold up on some mountain compound surrounded by cops.
spacemanps
macrumors regular
Lord Blackadder
macrumors P6
Well, the ingredients are available, but commercially produced thermite is not available to joe public without some form of documentation I'm sure.
The thing about explosives is that many use common compounds and it's impossible to ban the ingredients because they are things that are used everywhere, everyday.
So my question to the OP is...
Did you report it to eBay or did you just come here to bitch that it's there?
Did you report it to eBay or did you just come here to bitch that it's there?
dejo
Moderator emeritus
The commercially produced is the same stuff you can get with a wire brush and a scraper at a junk yard--only possibly a little bit more refined for impurities but just as effective