Whoever set the bombs might have had more in store, or if not promptly caught could have gone on to create more death and mayhem. The unabomber was in operation for almost twenty years. The authorities are going to do all they can to nip this kind of stuff in the bud. Their incentive is their reelection, if a politician can be smeared as not taking this kind of thing seriously they are going to be dead in the water. Hope you get the chance to see the police execute a warrant on anyone that is know to own firearms sometime. In my town they often deploy the swat team. One casualty is too much for anything other than the maximum possible use of force. Love the Blues Brothers, probably one of maybe five movies I like enough to own, says so much so ridiculously.
Since you are a big fan of the movie, I would highly recommend reading this post by scrimetime. cwenham, you may want to check it out too. A great "fly on the wall" account of the making of the film.
No, I've not read it. I was a big fan of SNL as a kid growing up. I haven't watched much in the last 10 years though.