While Nassau County authorities are calling Marc Ringel a "potential madman" after cops found, oh, an arsenal ("Fifteen improvised grenades, approximately 100 handguns, 20 long guns, approximately 50 pounds of ingredients that could be used to make explosives. There was enough explosive material in there to level that house and possible the entire block") in his parents' Woodmere home, his lawyer has a perfectly reasonable explanation for the cache of weapons: "This is a hobby that got out of control."
In addition to the weapons, authorities also found 250 marijuana plants (about 50 pounds of them). But the guns and explosives were more worrisome to authorities; according to Newsday, "A wire ran from the house to a backyard pit that police said appeared to have been used to test explosives"—there were 50 pounds of explosives (fuel oil, peroxide, hexamine and sodium nitrate).
Ringel's attorney Saul Bienenfeld claimed that 99% of the weapons (many of which were antiques) were bought on eBay and the FBI also didn't believe that there was any terrorism connected to the case.
Ringel, 53, remains in custody. Authorities are seeing whether Ringel's parents, who had been in Florida, had any idea of the arsenal in their home.
