A Michigan teenager has become the first person to be convicted under a 2002 state statute that criminalizes the making of terrorist threats. Andrew Osantowski, now 18, had been "chatting" on the internet with a sixteen-year-old Idaho girl about his plans to commit a massacre at his high school. When she turned him in, it turned out that he had the maps of the school, the list of people he planned to kill, and the (stolen) weapons to back his threats up. Police found an AK 47, pipe bomb components, knives, shotguns, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in his home; there is some dispute over whether Osantowski's cache should have been admitted as evidence. Osantowski will be sentenced next month; he faces a minimum of 75 months in jail, but could do as many as 42 years. Osantowski's high school class graduated over the weekend.

If it was creepy enough for his chat-buddy to turn him, it was creepy enough to investigate. It looks like the next school massacre may have been averted.

If they had found no tangible pieces to go along with the ramblings? Maybe a little counseling (and closer observation for a while), maybe a little lecture on reigning in one's more unpleasant thoughts (depending on the specifics of what he was saying, most people drop the occasional 'I'd like to kill my [boss/teacher/spouse/parent]' sort of comment but not that many persist and elaborately detail plans to wipe out a group).

Disturbing fellow. But just as disturbing is the fact the the first person arrested under a new "terrorist" threat law is--not an Arab or Muslim extremist--not a communist guerrilla--not even a neo-nazi white supremicist--but a Midwestern high school kid in need of psychiatric help.

Makes me believe the Patriot Act is just as effective and just as needed (read sarcasm here).

Not sure what Gaylan's point is. The terrorist threat law isn't intended to pick up Arabs or Muslim extremists. You could probably do that, pick up Arabs at least, by raiding a mosque any time you want to. The terrorist threat law is intended to prevent exactly the kind of thing that kid apparently had in mind, and it did work. The kids killed at Columbine are just as dead as the people who died at on 9/11.

Gaylan: How is PATRIOT relevant to this? This guy's charged under a state law criminalising making threats. (And with plans, maps, and supplies, it'd be criminal conspiracy if anyone else was involved.)

A kid "that needs psychiatric help", making a "terroristic threat" is, as Laura says, every bit as much a threat as a sane person making such a threat, especially given the evidence of planning and preparation, not just idle talk.

(On the other hand, "hundreds of rounds of ammunition" is pretty typical hyperventilation on the media or police department's part. Almost any gun owner is likely to have "hundreds of rounds of ammunition", if they have, say, a .22 - a 500 round brick of ammo is, what, 15 bucks, now?)