From: [r j l] at [pitt.edu] (Richard J. Loether)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,misc.headlines,alt.war
Subject: Re: Waco aflame
Date: 22 Apr 93 15:28:54 GMT

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in the USA has a long history
of making work for itself at the expense of American citizens.  They were
formed during the 1920s when Alcoholic bevereges were banned here and were
then known as the Bureau of Prohibition.  Their job was to find and break
up illegal whiskey stills.  When Prohibition was repealed, they became an
agency without a mission and they've been in search of one ever since.
Today, the BATF is in court in Idaho explaining why they killed the wife
and son of Randy Weaver in another siege excercise in 1992.  He had reportedly 
sold a shotgun to a BATF agent that had a barrel 1/10 inch shorter than 
regulations allow.  

David Koresh, aka Vernon Howell, the BD leader, was a Federally Licensed
class III firearms dealer.  He is supposed to have had several conversion
kits for converting semi-auto guns into full auto, that he had not paid the 
tax on, and had not filled out the proper forms.  This little tidbit tended
to get lost among the cries of wacko-religious-nutcase and child-abuser
thar were the order of the day at the regular briefings by the BATF and
the FBI during the siege.  In answer to the original question, it appears
to many people in the US that the BDs didn't use the weapons they were
supposed to have had because they didn't have them.  Why were the claims
made?  Good question, we'll leave that as an excercise to the reader.

RJL

-- 
Rich Loether          Snail mail: University of Pittsburgh     The Ideas:
EMail: [r j l] at [pitt.edu]              Computing and Info Services      Mine,
Voice: (412) 624-6429             600 Epsilon Drive                   all
FAX  : (412) 624-6426             Pittsburgh, PA 15238                  Mine.