Ok, my time's up, and here's what I came up with:
1. large and small diameter lampposts
2. paperclips and push pins
3. carbon-fiber repair tape (designed for bicycles)
4. duct tape
5. mixer paddle
6. long-shanked screwdriver (about 12")
7. monopod for camera (another aluminum tube)
8. tripod (three more aluminum tubes)
9. hangers, both plastic and metal
10. several belts
I'll not put the pieces together, folks (the ABATF probably wouldn't like that, either).
However, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that these common household items, or the couple of things readily available at a hardware or bicycle store, can be assembled in short order by anyone of ingenuity into a lethal short-range assasination device.
Then again, commensurate with local, city, county, state, and federal law, I already own a firearm, which itself is, among many other definitions is a "lethal short-range assassination device." Personally I prefer the term "firearm used for the purpose of self-defence," as that's my purpose for it.
My point in writing this is to show that it's utterly absurd to think we're going to eradicate the world of weapons. Heck, armed with nothing more than a small butterknife, a whetstone, and some ingenuity, I can fashion a very powerful compound bow, along with arrows to fill a quiver.
Add a leafspring from any car in the junkyard, a hacksaw, and a file, and I can fashion a compound crossbow capable of shooting an arrow over 500 mph.
Seriously, folks! Why are we up in arms about this stuff? I'm one of perhaps 20 million people in the U.S. who can do this, if they just gave a few brain cells a couple of seconds. This is nothing new. If it were any sort of serious issue, we'd no longer exist.
As it is, I and those like me keep our ears to the ground for the next Timothy McVeigh. If we hear gunshots popping off in the middle of the night, we report it. If we overhear a neighbor telling another he's had it up to hear with the gov't and he's devised a way to blow something up, we report it.
We're all in the same boat. We cherish the right to defend ourselves. Sometimes, however, we must step out of the box, make a judgement call, and report to higher authorities activities which go well above and beyond our right to keep and bear arms.
Thing's like McVeigh's loading a truck with ammonium nitrate and some oxidizer. Ok, that's way beyond going out to the range to do a little plinking! I wish someone had recognized and reported his activities earlier on. Nichols could have, and should have. If he had, 168 people would still be alive, and hundreds more would not have been maimed or otherwise injured.
Where am I going with this?
It's not the materials at hand that the BATF, NSA, CIA, FBI, or LEO should concern themselves with, although excessive purchase of such materials might indeed indicate a building or hotspot issue. It's the individual's psyche that'll tell them which of the 300,000,000 folks with routine and regular access to "stuff" will become the ones whom bear watching.
Here's the clicker, folks: We're all in this together. But just as we keep an eye out for the BG with a gun on the street, we should also keep an eye out for the ones who are a "little more off" than the rest. I'm not talking about those who rail against our government, as they're a dime a dozen, and the LAST thing we need is to devolve into another Hitlerian tattletale state.
I'm simply talking about using your common sense. If someone asks you to help them load 500 lbs of ammonium nitrate? Raise an eyebrow. If they're a farmer with routine access to the same and they ask you to help them move a few hundred pounds of a known oxidizer, it's time to make a phone call.
I have very few doubts that many more people than Nichol's and the Fortiers knew what McVeigh were up to. I also have very few doubts that if any of them had made an earlier phone call, McVeigh could have been stopped cold.