Extracted from:
Appendix G from the David Koresh Investigation.
US Government Printing Office: 1993-358-365
by Frederick S. Calhoun. Ph.D., Historian,
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.
. . . . .
The raid by ATF agents on the Branch Davidian compound resulted
from its enforcement of contemporary federal firearms laws. In
a larger sense, however, the raid fit within an historic, well-
established and well-defended government interest in prohibiting
and breaking up all organized groups that sought to arm or
fortify themselves. The 1934 law taxing weapons was only the
first time the federal government addressed private ownership of
weapons; it was not the first federal effort to control firearms.
From its earliest formation, the federal government has actively
suppressed any effort by disgruntled or rebellious citizens to
coalesce into an armed group, however small the group, petty its
complaint, or grandiose its ambition. The collection of large
arsenals by organized groups lent itself, ultimately, to the
violent use of those weapons against the government itself or
portions of its citizenry. Indeed, federal agents who tried to
disband the groups frequently became the targets.
{Dr. Calhoun goes on to discuss the Shays Rebellion of 1785,
the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, the Fries Rebellion of 1799,
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry Arsenal in 1859, the Ku
Klux Klan in the 1870s, armed outlaw bands on the Arizona
border in 1882, the 1894 Pullman strike by Eugene Debs and
the American Railway Union.}
..... it was the volatile mixture of violence and organization--
combinations determined difficult to suppress--that evoked the
full power of the federal government.
The passage of the National Firearms Act of 1934, the first federal
effort to control private ownership of firearms, grew out of this
historic fear of armed organizations. ... Subsequent federal firearms
laws have been of a piece. ....federal gun laws have typically been
concerned with the weapons of considerable destructive power
generally preferred by organized groups--bombs, machine guns, and
automatic weapons.
In recent times, the federal government has shown itself even
less patient with armed groups than it had historically. Radical
extremists of both the Right and the Left have been pursued
aggressively once they began breaking the law.
{Dr. Calhoun goes on to discuss the Symbionese Liberation Army SLA,
Los Angeles 1974; Gordon Kahl and the Posse Comitatus, North Dakota
1983; Bob Mathews and the Order, Washington State 1984; and James D.
Ellison and the Covenant of the Sword and Arm of the Lord CSA,
Arkansas 1985.}
As both history and recent events clearly show, the United States
has never tolerated armed groups residing within its borders. The
intent of the particular organization, whether ideological or
criminal, mattered little. If the group was building an illegal
arsenal, the group was subject to a federal enforcement action.
To this day, ATF's enforcement focus retains the flavor of that
historic concern with armed organizations. The agency has developed
considerable expertise and success in investigating the activities
of motorcycle, street, and drug gangs, all of which share in common
a proclivity to amass large arsenals of powerful weapons. The raid
on the Branch Davidian compound occurred in the context of that
historical background.
MY TWO CENTS
The Branch Davidians--however whacky you may consider their
end of the world beliefs--did not engage in violence against
the government until they were raided by a paramilitary
dynamic entry BATF strike force on 28 March 1993.
The government was reactive to the Shays, Whiskey and Fries
Rebellions, to John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, to the
Ku Klux Klan, to the outlaw bands on the Arizona border,
to the Pullman strikers, to the Symbionese Liberation Army,
to Gordon Kahl, to the Order and to the CSA. The government
reacted after these folks committed violent crimes.
The government was proactive to David Koresh (aka Vernon
Howell) and the Branch Davidians. By telephone Koresh offered
on 30 July 1992 to let the BATF inspect his guns and paperwork;
ATF continued with an investigation that Koresh was fully
aware of. Koresh, his lawyer Wayne Martin, and right hand man
Steve Schneider went to the sheriff's office at least three
times with complaints about the ATF investigation and the
refusal of law enforcement to deal with them face to face.
The Davidians were not a threat on the level of CSA, the Order,
Posse Comitatus, SLA, the border gangs, KKK, John Brown, or
the Fries, Whiskey or Shays rebels. The Davidian raid is
actually out of context of historical federal law enforcement
and represents a proactive law enforcement model that
encourages overkill.
On the one hand, the government denies any wrong doing at
Waco and dismisses critics as conspiracy crackpots or
extremists. On the other hand, the March 1996 GAO Use of
Force report shows changes in deadly force policy at ATF,
DEA and FBI that could only be the result of criticism of
the rules of engagement at Ruby Ridge and Waco; and, if
you read between the lines of Chris Whitcomb's Cold Zero
(2001), the FBI HRT was reorganized as a result of Ruby
Ridge and Waco; as a result, the standoffs involving the
Freeman, the Republic of Texas and the Puerto Rico firing
range protest were all handled differently and resolved
without bloodshed.
But until the government openly acknowledges the criticism
was valid and policy and training have been changed, this
will not go away and will continue to simmer and be a problem.
Trashing the critics feeds distrust of the government and
undermines law enforcement.
