UPDATE 2-Man with bullet parts arrested at Miami airport

Reuters ^ | Dec 28, 2010 | By Kevin Gray

[Jet Jaguar]

Law enforcement officials said they did not believe the incident had any links to terrorism. The FBI described the man as a 37-year-old nationalized U.S. citizen traveling en route to Jamaica. Authorities did not specify his previous nationality.

Authorities detained the man after a baggage handler reported a small explosion while unloading luggage from an American Airlines (AMR.N) flight that arrived in Miami from Boston.

FBI spokesman Mark Leverock said the man's luggage contained hundreds of bullet primers -- a key component of bullet cartridges.

[jwparkerjr]

I’m curious, where is the primer on a rim fire cartridge. I know the difference between them, but not sure how the rim fire works, despite the fact I grew up firing thousands of them on the ranch as a kid.

Thanks!

[Jeff Winston]

Law enforcement officials said they did not believe the incident had any links to terrorism.

So once again our multi-billion-dollar citizen groping brigade has caught... someone with no links to terrorism. As usual.

Have any of these bozos ever caught an actual terrorist? It seems to me that those guys invariably get through our sophisticated "security" and are either subdued by passengers while attempting to light their shoes, or they burn off their wee-wees while trying to explode their underwear.

Oh, but I forget. Liberal "security" isn't really about actual security, it's about making people feeeeeeeeel "more secure."

I guess someone decided that irradiation and sexual assault by government officials imparts a comforting sense of safety to the typical American.

[TheSarce]

...37-year-old nationalized U.S. citizen...

What the heck is a "nationalized" citizen? Do they mean "naturalized," perhaps? Or is the government now seizing citizens without their consent?

A "nationalized" citizen carrying "bullet primers," sheesh... Reuters isn't even pretending they know what they are talking about, they're just burping out mangled phrases with the intent of triggering pavlovian responses.

[kingu]

Having handled millions of primers without accidental ignition, I will go with my long experience. The chain here is accidental ignition of a primer from luggage handling on a tarmac. A very unlikely event being heard by a luggage handler with jets at idle, equipment being used, planes landing and taking off?

The unlikely becomes absurd.

For what it is worth, TSA refs and every airline policy forbids transporting primers and black powder. It is even possible that he was using an old muzzleloader trick of using shotgun shells (which are legal to transport with declaration) to hide his primers. But this whole story of a primer going off in luggage on the ground and being heard is increadibly unlikely.

[Buffalo Head]

There is not a separate primer, per se, in rimfire ammunition. Primer mix is forced into the internal cavity formed within the rim of the shellcase. The firing pin in rimfire firearms crushes the rim, which ignites the primer mix contained in that peripheral cavity which in turn ignites the propellant powder.

[Buffalo Head]

My comments stem from having been involved in the safe production and usage of many, many billions of primers. There has been nothing yet published about the incident that would suggest something happened other than what the scant reports claim.

A cavalier attitude about explosives will usually lead to problems.

[jwparkerjr]

Ah, that makes sense! A million thanks. I’ve wondered about that for years but never came across an occasion to ask about it!

[SwedeBoy2]

“The accidental ignition story stinks like a search for drugs that came up with primers.”

I have to agree with you.

Anyone familiar with Primers and their packaging would Tape the individual Boxes so they could not slide open and then either tape the 1000 count box as well or at least wrap up the 100 count boxes in a sock or something like that.

No way could they accidentally go off unless they were loose in the suitcase and even then I have my doubts. They would have to come out of the suitcase and be crushed in some manner.

[kingu]

Reason has to step into it. Are you suggesting that a baggage handler on the ground, outside, could identify the explosion of any percussion primer within luggage, excluding far more rational explanations for the sound including zipper pulls hitting the ground, locks hitting metal, plastics on luggage snapping...

Wish the guy luck, though. At minimum, he is in violation of 15 laws with minimum fines of $250.00 each with usual punishments of $12,000.

[Does so]

I don’t know about Jamaica, but some Caribbean Islands have made private ownership of firearms / ammunition illegal.

[calex59]

The primer compound is spun up into the outer edges of the rim, inside the case of course, so when the firing pin drops on the edge of the rim the primer compound ignites. Primer compounds are actually types of fulminates.

[radu]

Nothing was said about it, but I have to wonder if this guy had any buddies also on the flight. Others who might have had other components meant to be set off by these primers.
(tin foil hat is close by but not on my head.)

[Dusty Road]

So once again our multi-billion-dollar citizen groping brigade has caught... someone with no links to terrorism. As usual.

---

No they missed him completely, this happen when they were unloading.

[R. Scott]

"The bag was being taken out by a baggage handler, he put it on the ground and something ignited and hit him in the shoe," Leverock told Reuters. "One of the primers ignited and then they all ignited," he added.

Something hit him in the shoe? Sympathetic detonation of primers?

[Dusty Road]

Loading not unloading, it had already been screened.

[mad_as_he$$]

When was the last time you bought primers?

[jwparkerjr]

Just curious, which came first? Rim fire or center fire?

[broken_arrow1]

Crisis - next step, DHS to ban “explosive” primers.

[barb-tex]

A nationalized citizen is one whose parents secured a Certificate of Live Birth for a child born over seas, to secure his citizenship.

[barb-tex]

if memory serves, rim fire came first and CF was delayed by the patents on RF.