NORTON - A bill pending in the state Legislature will outlaw the cache of chemicals, like the kind seized from a local man arrested earlier this week with what authorities say was a homemade bomb in his car.

The bill will make it illegal to possess bomb-making chemicals, which will close a loophole in the current law, state Sen. James Timilty, D-Walpole, said Thursday.

Under current law, chemicals capable of making a bomb are not illegal to possess, and are only illegal when they are combined.

"You can have all the materials to put together a bomb, but unless it's in a combined state you can't be charged," said Timilty, who represents Norton and is chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee.

Norton Fire Chief Richard Gomes says it's time to close the loophole. "I think it's frustrating that you can have ill intent and still be able to buy these constituent components," Gomes said, adding that he was speaking in general terms.

"That's a shame when your intent is to make a bomb," added Deputy Fire Chief Paul Schleicher.

State police bomb squad members testified in favor of the bill before the Senate Public Safety Committee two weeks before Jason M. Driscoll, 37, was arrested with what police allege was a homemade bomb.

Driscoll pleaded innocent Tuesday to possession of an infernal machine and is being held in jail on $10,000 cash bail.

His lawyer, Brian Roman of North Attleboro, said the device was nothing more than fireworks, and that Driscoll did no intent to harm anyone.

The bomb squad meant to "disrupt" the device, so a piece of it could be saved to analyze. But the device detonated, Gomes said, causing a loud explosion throughout the neighborhood.

Police said the remains of the device were collected to be analyzed.

Police and fire officials and Timilty said passage of the bill is necessary for public safety and to allow the prosecution of people with intent to harm others.

There have been several instances in Massachusetts in which people had dangerous bomb-making chemicals, yet escaped prosecution because the chemicals were not yet combined, Timilty said.

He said one person was even caught with a popular book that contains bomb-making instructions and another had a shrine in his home dedicated to the Columbine High School killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The bill would outlaw the possession of chemicals like the kind police say they seized from Driscoll's apartment at 249 South Worcester St., including potassium chlorate, potassium nitrate and others.

Timilty said the bill, which was on track for approval last year when it expired at the end of the year, was voted favorably out of the Public Safety Committee, where no one testified in its opposition.

The bill could reach the Senate floor by the end of the month and could be approved by the full Legislature by the end of the summer, Timilty said.