Not sure what you're trying to say.
1) You were a typical child, having an illegal firearm and making bobs is just school boy fun. : Leading I assume to the idea that we shouldn't get to hung up about it now either.

2) Your confessing to your criminal past, and throwing yourself at the mercy of the courts?

3) If you can get away with a crime then that okay no harm done.

4) We should all be allowed to carry concealed weapons and make bombs to play with.

Only one of the above makes sense to me.

What the author is saying is that in our PC world he'd have been a criminal and his future prospects would have been ruined.

He mentions France, which today has terrorist problems etc., yet a French Citizen can possess, without a licence, guns that would have a NSW citizen locked up quick smart and screaming headlines in the papers.

Well most lads left entirely to their own devices and unsupervised, will get up to similar mischief?

The more intelligent ones will be the most curious? Albeit, a history of animal abuse, killing living things for no other reason than target practice and pleasure, can sometimes lead to worse abuses later on? (Ivan Milat?)?

I had an air rifle, and used to pick the heads of daisies with it, or better yet, tie a bottle to something and set it swinging, then cut the string, with the first shot; and at maximum range.

And later when I took up hunting to remove feral animals eating us out of house and home, a skill that made the task and the invariable head shot, as humane as was possible?

We had a few of those perverts where I went to school and they suffered the potato treatment, which forces a raw spud up the exhaust pipe and plugs it, creating some starting difficulties! Compounded by an inevitable pumping of the loud pedal and an eventual start, albeit one well down on power.

That is until the potato is ejected with a load bang and lots of flame!

Around a dozen potatoes were expended, and several trips to the exhaust repair shop, before these types got the message and moved on; really did go quietly!

I'm sorry, but to this day they and their perverse interest in small boys, still makes my skin crawl and could have suffered far worse at other hands!

So and in summary, many entirely unsupervised small boys/latch kids, would have gotten up to similar mischief!

And it's not all that uncommon to see the moral compass and leadership strengthen as a consequence, and some of the near misses that silly kid's stuff created!

Even so and in the last analysis, kids rarely learn from other's mistakes; unless it's presented almost too graphically!

Like say firing a blank at pointblank range at a piece of particle board; or what a well aimed 50 cal hydraulic round can do to a tree trunk from a mile away!
Rhrosty.

The author here fails to understand that our legal system forgives the many mistakes made by young people and treats then very leniently. None of the things he thinks would happen now would in fact happen.
The law prohibits the publication of the name of a juvenile offender and juvenile offences to not become part of a criminal record.

The argument is fundamentally flawed.

Pipe bombs aren't particularly dangerous to the user, my brother and I made them as well as match head cannons and so forth, the attempt at a flame thrower and a few of our Molotov cocktails resulted in awkward questions when my parents got home: "What happened to your eyebrows?" amd "I just bought your brother those jeans and now look at them!"
Thing is, living way out in the sticks and doing that sort of thing is fine, we also had a disused slate quarry nearby which provided a safe enclosure for such larks, playing with bombs in town probably would have seen us arrested, I knew one kid who got into trouble for setting of a pipe bomb in the street.
We also had the kind of father who even if he caught us doing building devices like that would grab it off us and declare "You silly little buggers, you'll blow your bloody heads off if you do it that way...here I'll show you how to do it properly!"

The author has no right to call himself a "terrorist" or even mention that word because all he was at the time, even by today's standards, was a juvenile delinquent with no ideology whatsoever except for thrill-seeking.

It is this sort of childish naivety that makes it impossible to convince so many people that there is a real problem and threat coming from terrorists and fundamental Muslims; that Islam is wageing war against us.

What a macho little lad you were!

Did you ever stop to consider why you assumed you had some kind of dispensation to indulge in pursuits that might cause loss of life and limb to innocent people?

Or did you just assume that because you were male, that was your god-given right?

Spare me the self-righteous pontifications that in today's world, you would be deemed a terrorist. You were a troubled, angry young man who thought that violent weaponry was the solution to your personal problems.

Troubled young women of that time sought solace in being sexually provocative. That was equally stupid, but it didn't kill or main anyone.

I was given my air rifle at the age of 10. Even at that age I had enough sense not to fire it anywhere near houses, & definitely at anything with a house behind it.

I think it is a great pity you were not caught, & given a few months in reform school, it might have taught you, & some of your mates a bit of sense.

This is probably the first bit of writing which could make me agree with taking guns off people, at least those who live in towns.

It didn't kill or maim anyone?

No but it did destroy many a family, and with that destruction destroyed many a career/future prospects/sentenced our best and brightest to a lifetime of mediocrity/post code poverty and their own broken relationships/time out in foster homes and orphanages/forever broken and scarred emotionally/precocious!

And somewhere in that old as time scenario is a sexually provocative (control freak) Female!?

Even so and as always, you sit in absolute judgement on what most would consider normal (frogs and snails and puppy dogs tails) alpha male curiosity!?

What would you have? Our little men to be (sugar and spice and everything nice) all little women?

Exchange particular to blokes comradrie/lifelong mateship, with almost obligatory backstabbing malicious spite/blame shifting/endless sexual innuendo peculiar to the female of the species? NO THANKS!

And how many of the single vehicle accidents excetera etc; that result in a fatality of a young man, were caused by a sexually provocative woman having a little harmless fun with a mere male's feelings!?

Which by the way, go far deeper than anything a fickle female is actually capable of?

Moreover, we then wonder why so many young men are choosing to remain single and forever uncommitted?

It must be such a comfort to know that you're just so perfect/superior/always right Killarney?

Just never ever fair or fair-minded!? Not the sort of quality one normally brings to the bench and judgement?

It's said that only around 10% of males are the wife beating/abusive brutes etc?

I suppose there's an unusually insensitive narcissistic foulmouthed female equivalent, and to be avoided at all costs, regardless of how sexually provocative and inviting she might be, when answering her own entirely selfish (buzz whir thank you sir) needs Killarney?
Rhrosty.

Rhrosty

Wow! I know from your posting history that your contempt for women is as boundless as your reverence for macho male war and weaponry.

But really! That last comment was completely over the top. Even for you.

But of course, according OLO gender dynamics (male-to-female commenting ratio about 7:1), I am the one who will stand accused of being fully deserving of your abusive, aggressive post because I ... (gasp) ... dared to criticise men's fascination with war and weaponry.

You also paint a ridiculously exaggerated scenario of the massive social destruction wreaked on the general population by promiscuous women. Of course, promiscuous men don't cause any social problems at all.

No, definitely not. After all, promiscuity in men is perfectly acceptable, normal and all part of a man's natural entitlement. Like war and weaponry.

I played with explosives (purchased and home-made) as a kid. I think the considerable sums of money that are spent on New Year's Eve fireworks is testament to the fact that even peaceful people like a loud, showy spectacle.

I don't think it is an exclusively male thing... and I don't think it's about war and violence, because I'm a pacifist.

I could pretend it was about scientific curiosity - but I think mostly I just liked them because they were loud, exciting and forbidden.