[nitrogen]

How many people out there didn't do something reckless in their youth? By the standards modern society seems to be applying to youth, the vast majority of present day adults should have been charged with felonies in their teens.

From your link: Police said no one in Novato has been injured by a bottle bomb so far. But officers did arrest a group of teenagers at the end of January for making and setting off Drano bombs in an open space off Palmer Drive.

Note that nobody was hurt, and that the teenagers were using an open space. That sounds like the teenagers were following reasonable safety precautions.

From another HN thread on the subject: ... 2Al + 3H2SO4 -> 3H2 + Al2(SO4)3 is not on the prohibited list of reactions that are federally impermissible without a license. (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5636823)

What felony would these kids be guilty of committing?

You know who should have been arrested? The guy I knew years ago (whose dad was a sheriff letting him off the hook, and who was definitely not a friend) who threw a Drano+foil bomb at a pedestrian and drove off. His favorite part of the story was the "hilarious" screams of the victim as the bomb exploded: "It burns!"