Las Vegas shooter filled car with 50 pounds of binary explosives

The man who killed 58 people and injured nearly 500 more in Las Vegas had filled his car with 50 pounds of binary explosives, which are popular with longrange target shooters and gun enthusiasts.

In a late afternoon news conference Monday, Sheriff Joe Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said Stephen Paddock had filled his vehicle with at least 50 pounds of the explosives.

Lombardo said Paddock had stockpiled his car with the explosives. The explosives in his car were not detonated. They were removed safely by police.

In 2015, binary explosives made headlines when a Georgia man blew off his own leg by shooting a lawn mower filled with Tannerite, a type of binary explosive. Authorities also found residue of Tannerite in a bomb that exploded in Manhattan.

These binary explosives long have been used by mining companies and other industries because when the elements are stored separately, they’re safe.

Binary explosives were created for commercial use in the 1970s, according to Dan Waltenbaugh, an enforcement specialist with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

They provided industries with a safer, cheaper way to store and use explosives. Instead of having to create a special area to store explosives, companies just had to have space to store two relatively inert substances, which wouldn’t require regulation or special storage unless they were mixed, Waltenbaugh said.

The federal government urged companies to use them, making them exempt from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives regulation so no permit was required to own and use them. Until the components are mixed, the laws for explosives aren’t applicable, Waltenbaugh said.