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[IronyOwl]

I've heard that they were full of ball bearings.

So yeah, that's not an attempt to destroy buildings, or even really to kill people.  That's a maiming device.

The reason why the death toll is so low is that a lot of medical personal were at the site when the blast hit... having taken first aid the first few minutes makes a difference in whether someone survives or not.

That makes more sense, then.

Question, though: Would ball bearings necessarily signal a deliberate intent to maim rather than kill, or could it just signify not having anything better to make anti-personnel explosives from?

[Mech#4]

I've heard that they were full of ball bearings.

So yeah, that's not an attempt to destroy buildings, or even really to kill people.  That's a maiming device.

The reason why the death toll is so low is that a lot of medical personal were at the site when the blast hit... having taken first aid the first few minutes makes a difference in whether someone survives or not.

That makes more sense, then.

Question, though: Would ball bearings necessarily signal a deliberate intent to maim rather than kill, or could it just signify not having anything better to make anti-personnel explosives from?

Ball bearings would be easy to get yes? My thought is they tried to mimic a shotgun cartridge.

[Wrex]

There are better shrapnel fillings for killing, though, that are still quite easy to get. It's entirely possible they didn't know, or didn't want to put forth the effort, in addition to the "Wanted to maim" hypothesis.


Coupled with how -odd- it is that someone would bomb the boston marathon, I don't think this was done by someone with much technical skill.

[sneakey pete]

I'm not going to get into the debate above, but you all seem to be ignoring the fact that this bomb seems to have been designed to cause Injuries, not deaths. Permanent, debilitating ones.

Looking at one of the videos from the finish line, the the moment the bomb explodes you can see a line where stuff hits the fabric barrier's near the bottom, and a runner on the track falls over and grabs their legs. There's also a lot of reports about amputations of legs and feet. It seems like the bomb may have been designed to project shrapnel out in a disc shape at lower leg level, eg it was designed specifically to injury people.
But that's just my casual observation.

A blast pattern like that would be ridiculously difficult to produce. Most likely the devices were just packed full of ball bearings, nails etc. Those will do terrible tissue damage but the chance of a hit is reduced very fast when moving further away from the point of detonation.

I wouldn't have thought it would be that hard to produce, but i'm no explosives expert, Was just merely speculating.

[Myrkky100]

I wouldn't have thought it would be that hard to produce, but i'm no explosives expert, Was just merely speculating.

I'm not an expert by no means either, I'm just basing this on the basic stuff I learned in the army. It is fairly easy to direct shrapnel in a certain direction by shaping the charge. An example of this would be a Claymore mine. But the shrapnel will still spread out both horizontally and vertically the further away you get from the explosion and that's why a disc would be really difficult.

[ChairmanPoo]

Turns out my boss was running that thing... no news, tho

[Sheb]

Running what?

[SalmonGod]

Running what?

Running in the marathon, I'm guessing.

The governor has announced there will be random bag searches in public spaces in Boston.

[Haspen]

Running what?

Running in the marathon, I'm guessing.

The governor has announced there will be random bag searches in public spaces in Boston.

Not sure if paranoia kicking in or just precaution

[Zangi]

Running what?

Running in the marathon, I'm guessing.

The governor has announced there will be random bag searches in public spaces in Boston.

Not sure if paranoia kicking in or just precaution

I personally think paranoia and fear is going to have a strong grip for the next few months around these parts.

[tahujdt]

They're probably thinking that this was domestic, but they can't say anything yet. If this was foreign, someone would have taken responsibility by now.
I'm pretty sure that this attack was specifically to create terror and paranoia, not to kill. They did a pretty good job at it too.

[ChairmanPoo]

Running what?

Running in the marathon, I'm guessing

Yeah  he got a pretty bad score tho

I heard the bombs were "artisan-work" whatever that means. So I'm guessing domestic as well

[alway]

There are better shrapnel fillings for killing, though, that are still quite easy to get. It's entirely possible they didn't know, or didn't want to put forth the effort, in addition to the "Wanted to maim" hypothesis.


Coupled with how -odd- it is that someone would bomb the boston marathon, I don't think this was done by someone with much technical skill.

Gonna agree with Wrex here. The perp was probably lacking in technical skill. After all, the average one of us, if told to make a shrapnel bomb, would end up with much the same design. Ball bearings and/or nails would likely be the shrapnel of choice simply because that's what the typical person thinks of when we think shrapnel devices.

As for a disk shaped spread, that's what I would expect from such a device. After all, ball bearings expelled from a point source at a high speed will expand outwards, then fall back to the ground. And being ball bearings, they will likely bounce up off the ground multiple times before coming to a stop. During which time you have an expanding disk of ball bearings bouncing off the ground in all directions, staying relatively low to the ground.

[tahujdt]

Considering the timing, I'm guessing this was professional.

[Frumple]

Damned entertainment media bullshit.

Heey, it's already fucking started! Grandparents in the house for a day or two, had TV on. Three or four times I've already heard them milking the death of a preteen. So much hate right now.