I think the main source of confusion is here is that the original author said "weapons", which about half of commentators have taken to mean weapons/warheads and half have taken to mean nuclear material of any variety.

Yeah that's a fair point -- it's unlikely for pits to ever achieve accidental criticality given their design and setting. Much less so for plutonium in general which you'd likely have to deal with anywhere you have a bunch of warheads hanging out.