From: [UK 09365] at [ukpr.uky.edu]
Newsgroups: info.firearms.politics
Subject: GunTalk: Waco article
Date: 29 Oct 93 04:51:26 GMT

(from The Detroit News, 4/23/93, 11A)
Paul Craig Roberts

Gun control laws forced Waco disaster

If Rodney King's civil rights were violated in Los Angeles, what
happened in Waco, Texas?

If a billy club is excessive force, what is a tank? If four Los
Angeles police officers--their adrenalin flowing from exertions to
subdue a resisting, large, strong man--used bad judgment in ap-
plying force, what kind of judgment was exercised by President
Clinton, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and the FBI in the relative calm of
their Washington offices?

The Branch Davidians are not a preferred minority, but their civil
rights were nevertheless violated.

The federal officials responsible must be held accountable for the
deaths of about 24 children and 62 adults. The congressional
hearings into the extraordinary miscalculation that produced this
horror must not become a cover-up dominated by liberal hostility
toward religion and gun ownership.

The excuse given by Atty. Gen. Reno is that the FBI's hostage team
was fatigued and could not indefinitely continue in place.
Out-waited and impatient, something had to be done.

So the FBI played directly into David Koresh's hands and fulfilled
his prophecy.

Throughout the long siege the media have regaled us daily with
reports that Koresh believed that he was destined for persecution
and that he and his followers would die in a violent confrontation
with the secular state.

The FBI cannot claim to have been unaware of his views. In a brief-
ing last month, a senior FBI official said: "From the mid-'80s on,
he's preached that their group will end up in a violent
confrontation with law enforcement and that this will be a
fulfillment of his prophecy."

Fully armed with all the facts, the federal government set out to
bring the tragedy to pass. Numerous opportunities were ignored to
serve Koresh with the warrant on his trips to town or to detain and
question him about the government's suspicion that he possessed
illegal firearms. Instead, 100 armed agents of the Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms division of the Treasury Department unexpectedly
assaulted the compound.

The agents dressed themselves in black assault uniforms and brought
the TV cameras along to record their exploits, but their assault
was repelled by the Branch Davidians, with loss of lives and
injuries on both sides. Then the FBI showed up with tanks and
armored vehicles.

The FBI let the tensions build up for 50 days and then broke into
the building with a tank and attacked with tear gas.

The black inmates who had taken over the Lucasville, Ohio, prison
and murdered both inmates and guards were shown a great deal more
understanding.

True to form, many liberals have rushed forward to blame the Waco
disaster on the Second Amendment which permits Americans to own
guns.

To the contrary, it happened precisely because of federal laws
regulating gun ownership. The Branch Davidians hadn't assaulted
anyone. They lived peacefully within the community. Except for the
federal gun laws, they would all still be alive.

The liberals' premise that gun ownership should be illegal, or in
the least heavily regulated, has created the atmosphere in which
the ATF, like an unthinking bully, feels compelled to increasingly
and brazenly show its presence. That is what produced the deaths of
86 children, women and men.

An embarrassed attorney general lamely blames her "fatigued agents"
and "reports" that babies were being beaten and children molested.
After the event, she pleads the Clintons' concern with children to
justify setting in motion a plan that gets all the children killed.
Some solution.

But it shows once again the utter incompetence of the federal
government. Why anyone would want it more involved in our lives is
inexplicable.