The Anarchist’s Cookbook is not banned because the uniqueness or danger of any given piece of information. Each recipe and suggestion that is made in the book can be found in any number of places on the internet with any small amount of effort. Many of which are impossible to trace if done properly. However, the Anarchist Cookbook compiles all of this information into one place. It essentially creates a database for contraband or a terrorism for dummies. This makes the information that much more accessible and easy to access, which in turn reduces the barrier for entry to these ideas. This barrier of entry is how law enforcement generally functions, no crime can be 100% eliminated as there is always people who will take the risk, so the executive branches best bet is to raise the risk and difficulty to carry out these actions to reduce the number of occurrences. This is a large part of why this book has received such negative reactions and limitations by the government.
Beyond the low barrier of entry for access, the Anarchist’s Cookbook also ties these methodologies to an ideology. The idea of Anarchism promoted by the author and many of their followers is one that inherently goes against the authority of the accepted government. By promoting these ideas it threatens the legitimacy of the government, and in turn opens it up to greater threats of revolution both non-violent and violent.
The final, and arguably the most important, reason for the book’s banning is accessibility and simplicity of these recipes. Many of these weapons, drugs, or paraphernalia can be created using everyday objects. This in particular is a threat today as terrorism, mass killings, and attacks on schools are becoming more and more popular as tactics of terrorism. The people carrying out these attacks are usually young converts who have been mislead, indoctrinated, or manipulated into carrying out these tasks. Therefore, the accessibility of these recipes is extremely useful to the groups using these tactics.