A 21-year-old college student was caught with half a stick of dynamite in his luggage, and:

In Houston, KTRK-13 quoted law enforcement sources as saying that the man had a blasting cap, a homemade fuse and a quarter-pound of ammonium nitrate, in addition to the dynamite.

Now, you tell me–in the middle of an orange alert for airlines, how dumb do you have to be to pack dynamite, ammonium nitrate, a fuse and a blasting cap on an international flight? His father explains:

Fish’s father, Howard, said he is certain his son, who bought the dynamite while visiting a silver mine while traveling in South America, intended no harm.

“It’s a 21-year-old kid not paying careful attention to the press and thinking it would be cool to have a piece of dynamite,” Howard Fish, of Old Lyme, Conn., said Friday night.

Okay, I think that nearly getting struck by lightning is pretty cool, so maybe I’m not the best judge here, but how out of it do you have to be to not be aware of the whole air travel safety thing? And even if you’re not, even in the safest of times, it still comes across as one of the dumbest things you can imagine. Especially considering:

Houston Fire Department Assistant Chief Omero Longoria said Fish told authorities he works in mining and often handles explosives.

Now, in my opinion, that doesn’t make things better, it makes things worse. If I were in the mining industry, I don’t think I’d want to hire someone that incautious around explosives.