Guns Don't Kill, Ammonium Nitrate Does

  Before we go about gun control, we need to get a handle on ammonium nitrate. Ban it, where we can; regulate it where we can't.

   Guns don't kill, ammonium nitrate does. Okay, they both can contribute to death, but have you ever seen such large numbers in gun violence as there are in ammonium nitrate violence? In 1995, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols purchased 2 ton of the substance from a farm supply store, mixed it with racing fuel, and blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City -- killing no less than 168 people. How many mass shootings kill 168?

   But, that's nothing: a 1947 fire on an ammonium nitrate-carrying ship docked in Texas City, near Galveston, set off a series of explosions and fires that killed 580 -- still the deadliest industrial accident in American history.

   Here's one where the numbers are more in line with mass murders: in 2013 (April 18, to be exact, so we are coming up on the anniversary), a fire broke out at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, carving a crater 75 feet wide and 8 feet deep, registering equivalent to a 2.1 magnitude earthquake -- and killing 15 people. 

  It doesn't matter that these ammonium nitrate tragedies are few and far between. When they do happen, the death count can be high. And, the U.S. has done little to mitigate them. How about banning sales to anyone who cannot show the ammonium nitrate will be used for farming? How about setting standards for the storage? 

   It only happens once in a blue moon, or once in quite a few blue moons. But, when it does, it blows you all the way to the moon.