The Man Who Knew Too Much

Over at Bearing Arms Tom Knighton has an article that points to the absurdity that is the (formerly) Great Britain. According to the article a UK Man (has been) Arrested for Possessing Gunpowder Recipe. My first impression was that there must be more to the story. Surely, Knighton cannot be serious.  Perhaps he had made some gunpowder and loaded it into steel pipes to make pipe bombs. But no, apparently the man was being persecuted for merely writing down the recipe.

Now, I have personally never been tempted to make gunpowder. It is dangerous to do, and in any case if I used black power firearms, manufacturers make much better substitutes today. The original was highly corrosive in addition to being explosive.  But that really isn't the point. The point is that the recipe for gunpowder has been pretty widely known since 1267 when Roger Bacon exposed the (not very closely held) secret to the world. So, where does the Crown get off pretending that it is some top secret, eyes only sort of thing. You can easily find the recipe on the internet, for crying out loud.

Here in the United States, we have a serious DIY culture. People will make their own anything if they think it's cool enough. Despite being the wealthiest nation on the planet, people build their own furniture, make their own clothes, make pottery, take up blacksmithing, or any number of activities that they could just pay for, but would rather do it themselves.

And we celebrate this.

Yes, that also includes people making their own guns and ammunition...

Well, yes, we do celebrate do-it-yourselfers so if you want to make your own gunpowder, be my guest. Especially since inevitably there will be those who say, "it can't happen here." I have seen how that (doesn't) works out:

And before anyone tries the "it can't happen here" thing, remember that some states have tried making it illegal to possess 3D printer files for making your own firearm. That's still just information that is harmless on its own. How long before some ninny here in the States tries to ban reloading your own ammo, followed by banning information pertaining to reloading?

We're not as far away from something like this as we might like to believe.

That's especially true as this was folded under anti-terrorism laws. The specter of terrorism has made our own lawmakers opt for some stupid things in the past, and to forget that freedom is and remains the guiding principle of this great nation, so it's not hard to see this happening here.

Knighton suggests each of us should write down the formula for black gunpowder. So, here it is just in case it suddenly disappears from the internet, though it will remain in old, printed books forever: 75% by weight Potassium Nitrate, 15% by weight Charcoal, and 10% by weight Sulfur. I hereby dare Scotland Yard to come and arrest me.