Man Threatens to Kill Public Officials, Leading to Discovery of Something Worse Than Guns

Threatening to kill people is never a good idea. It yields no good results for anyone. Yes, that’s true even if you think the guy really, really deserves to walk among the angels…or head a little further south.

Those who threaten others are often times just full of bluster. They don’t have the cajones to act on it, and the moment they find out that the person they’re threatening isn’t just bending over, they run for the hills.

But a man in Tennessee did pretty much everything wrong. He threatened not just anyone, but public officials–people who law enforcement tends to take threats against a smidge more seriously than the rest of us–and it turns out that no, guns weren’t needed to carry out that threat.

Officers found 14 improvised explosive devices in a Tennessee home while apprehending a man who had threatened to kill public officials and local law enforcement personnel, authorities said Aug. 2.

Investigators and sheriff’s deputies went to a residence on Aug. 1 in the community of Old Fort, located just north of the Tennessee-Georgia border, seeking to arrest Kevin Wade O’Neal on active warrants, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. O’Neal, 54, was accused of threatening to kill public officials and law enforcement personnel in the county.

While taking him into custody, the sheriff’s office said in a statement that deputies noticed “something was smoldering” in the bedroom where the suspect was found. They observed what appeared to be an improvised explosive device, also known as IED.

The deputies immediately evacuated the residence, and alerted the Chattanooga Police Department bomb squad and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), according to the sheriff’s office. Officers and agents later discovered 14 IEDs inside the home.

Old boy planned to detonate the bombs when the police came to arrest him. Luckily, that plan didn’t quite work out.

USA Today notes that this is just the latest incident involving IEDs, which isn’t really surprising because bombs are a terrifying thing, and people who want to do something like this are likely wanting to make a statement.

The report doesn’t say anything about how viable the explosive devices actually were, unfortunately. Many times, improvised explosives don’t actually work. Guys in rural Tennessee generally aren’t being taught by experienced Al Qaeda or ISIS bombmakers, after all, thankfully.

Still, it’s a firm reminder that bad guys don’t need guns to try and kill people.

This guy didn’t manage to hurt anyone, thankfully, but it’s not like bombings are unheard of in the United States, even by domestic sources. You don’t need a gun to kill a lot of innocent people.

However, I also want to know that the threats were enough to get law enforcement involved. Tennessee doesn’t have a red flag law, so they weren’t acting on any such thing when they showed up at this dude’s house. They didn’t need one because threats are criminal offcnses. Making terroristic threats has been illegal for a very long time, actually. It isn’t even some post-9/11 law, and this guy was in deep water even without the bombs, all without some special law focusing on guns.

Funny how often that kind of thing gets missed in the whole red flag law discussion, isn’t it?

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