I have discovered an odd truth about violent risk in the United States, particularly the South and West. In the course of my work as a risk analyst and a political scientist studying terrorism, I read a lot of news stories every day about suspicious packages, hazmat responses to weird mail, and pipe bombs.
The pipe bombs end up in abandoned fields, or on streets, or (more rarely) in peoples’ yards or mailboxes. Usually they are a prank and sometimes they have an actual sinister intent; no matter the intent though, they are always incredibly dangerous, and people always get hurt. Stuff always gets damaged. And people always go to jail.
I don’t know why anyone would ever think making a pipe bomb was a good or fun idea, but it happens. People get curious, I guess, and end up making one. Sometimes they blow their own hands off or die in the process. Sometimes they successfully make one and then accidentally blow up a car at a picnic or something.
So the strange thing I have discovered is this: whenever anyone gets arrested for detonating a pipe bomb seemingly out of curiosity and away from people and things, it is almost always two white guys in their early thirties. Additionally, it almost as a rule happens on Sunday afternoons.
So is it just that the weekend spirals out into the ether and there aren’t enough activities to keep everyone interested? So that by the time you get to Sunday afternoon, the only thing left to do is to whip up improvised high explosives?
Or they’re pissed thinking about going back to their dead end jobs on Monday.
Now for the $100 question…is there seasonality in it that corresponds with football season or Sunday afternoon NASCAR races? Maybe it really is a case of “there’s nothing to distract me from how much I hate life, so let’s get together and blow somethin’ up!”
An interesting idea for analysis. And easy to code, too.