I will admit my mistake. But UPS does not ship firearms unless it is an FFL location. Of which there were none at that compound. That is what triggered the call to the FBI in the first place. I have used UPS to ship quite a few guns actually, they will not provide a point to point delivery.
That is a claim, there seems to be quite a bit of mystery around this. Either way, a warrant was issued. Lets assume, that whatever mistakes happened in the issuance of the warrant, it was a result of a mistake and not malice.
You still fail to address the actual existance of contraband. Check this out.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/waco/treasury.html
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms investigated David Koresh for conduct involving: the illegal manufacture of machine guns and the illegal manufacture and possession of destructive devices. The FBI report provides evidence that the Davidians' arsenal did indeed include weapons unlawfully manufactured. The weapons listed include semiautomatic firearms illegally modified to fire in full automatic mode, as well as grenades and silencers. All of these weapons were unlawfully possessed.
I hope you find these documents useful as you review Treasury's report on ATF's role in events at Waco.
_______________________________________________________________________________
WEAPONS RECOVERED FROM THE BRANCH DAVIDIAN COMPOUND: TREASURY SUMMARY OF REPORT PREPARED BY THE FBI FOR PROSECUTORS AND THE ILLEGAL WEAPONS RECOVERED
Machine Guns
The FBI determined that 46 semiautomatic firearms had been modified to fire in full automatic mode:
22 M-16 Type Rifles
20 AK-47 Type Rifles
2 Heckler and Koch SP-89
2 M-11/Nine
The FBI also determined that two AR-15 lower receivers had been modified to fire in full automatic mode.
Silencers
21 Sound suppressors or silencers
Hand Grenades
4 Live M-21 Practice Hand Grenades
The possession of lawfully manufactured machineguns, silencers, or grenades requires the owner to register the weapon with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms. None of the compound's residents were registered to own such a weapon, therefore it would have been illegal for them to possess these weapons.
Now when faced with the evidence above, would you expect this to be anything less than an armed raid? Should we have had a couple of agents show up Miami Vice style?
I dont know who shot first, nobody does. At this rate it doesnt matter because both sides fired. Both sides took casualties. Nobody is innocent. These people were not puritans. They were child molesting terrorists.
This is based entirely on hearsay and conjecture. That whole thing wouldnt have happened if they wouldnt have shot at federal agents. They wouldnt have burned to death if they would have at any moment during a 51 day standoff, come out with thier hands up. Koresh was a mad man. He had a death wish. He was willing to die and bring down all of his brainwashed followers with him, women and children included. Janet Reno, Bill Clinton, the Federal government didnt kill those people. David Koresh did.
So, yet we deviate once again from the original topic to grasp at more straws for a partisan attack that is holding less and less water.
You want to criticise Reno over this? Again, what did you want her to do?
A boy smuggled into the US, whose mother had kidnapped him and left the country illegally and died in route. The boy's father wants him returned. The family refused. US courts demand him returned to the family. They had been given a deadline, they didnt comply. This boy was being held hostage and had been more or less kidnapped. They negotiated for 10 days.
Lib, at the rate you are going, there would still be ATF in Waco, waiting them out. There would still be hundreds of protesters and police surrounding the Gonzalez house, WTF did you want the LE to do in those situations. The crooks in those cases were both given literally weeks and had leverage in any negotiations, but they choose to continue the standoffs. We cant expect the cops to simply pack up and go away in these situations do we?
