{"id":117134,"date":"2020-02-16T15:46:35","date_gmt":"2020-02-16T20:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=117134"},"modified":"2020-02-16T15:46:35","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T05:40:15","slug":"the-waco-disaster-a-cautionary-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/the-waco-disaster-a-cautionary-tale\/","title":{"rendered":"The Guns of the Waco Disaster: A Cautionary Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The
I vaguely remember David Koresh being a pretty amiable guy. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I once met David Koresh at the big Market\nHall gun show in Dallas. I recall a friendly longhaired guy with a table full\nof black rifles who seemed a bit weird. In retrospect that was fairly surreal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The actual practicality of enforcing America\u2019s ever-growing pantheon of gun control laws is untidy, to say the least. These are some of the FBI operators during the Waco siege. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not justifying\nthe Branch Davidians\u2019 theology, their peculiar social habits,\nor their actions in the face of a full-on government assault replete with\narmored vehicles. It has been alleged that Koresh was a pedophile polygamist\nwho amassed an arsenal of illegally converted machineguns. All that may be true.\nHowever, undeniably bad things invariably happen when the full fury of the United\nStates government is unleashed upon American citizens for violating ever-shifting\nfirearms laws. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
We have for years known that the Left\u2019s ultimate goal was firearms confiscation. It\u2019s as obvious as Richard Simmon’s dating preferences. It is simply that now they are finally talking about it openly. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gun control is in the news these days because gun control is forever in the news. After decades of uncomfortably dancing around the issue, a serious candidate for the Democratic nomination for President has finally come out and said what we all knew all along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Beto O\u2019Rourke is a Democratic congressman from Texas whose history includes arrests for both DWI and burglary. An outspoken champion of the poor and disadvantaged, his net worth hovers around $9 million. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

          \u201cHell, yes, we\u2019re going to take\nyour AR-15, your AK-47.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

–Beto O\u2019Rourke<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Gun confiscation in America seldom ends well for anybody. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While that makes a great left-wing\ntalking point, I wonder if they\u2019ve really thought that one through. A\ncertain statistically significant percentage of the American gun-owning\npopulation is not going to just queue up and hand over their black rifles.\nSadly, it seems we have actually trod this blood-soaked ground before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Flawed Messiah<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Vernon Howell aka David Koresh had a decidedly unfortunate childhood. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Vernon Wayne Howell was born in 1959 to a\n14-year-old single mother named Bonnie Sue Clark. Howell\u2019s father, Bobby\nWayne Howell, abandoned Bonnie Sue for another teenager before Vernon was born.\nBonnie Sue subsequently shacked up with a violent alcoholic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Howell had a weakness for the ladies. He was ejected from his church for announcing that God had told him to marry the pastor\u2019s daughter. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bonnie Sue abandoned the child to his\nmaternal grandmother when he was four. An unpopular kid, Vernon proceeded\nthrough school in special education classes secondary to severe dyslexia. At\nage 22 he fathered his first child with an underage 15-year-old girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Vernon Howell clearly had some sort of delusional mental illness. Improperly channeled this became terribly dangerous. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here the tale gets monumentally strange.\nVernon spent a little time in church and claimed to have the gift of prophecy.\nHe gravitated toward an eccentric offshoot of the Seventh Day Adventists called\nthe Branch Davidians based outside Waco, Texas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Vernon challenged the accepted Davidian leader to a dead-raising contest. Little came of the exercise beyond the desecration of an innocent corpse. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Vernon assimilated into this curious\nlittle band and eventually found himself in a power struggle for leadership.\nGeorge Roden, the son of the organization\u2019s dead founder Benjamin,\nvied with Vernon for control. George and Vernon challenged each other to a\nraise-the-dead contest, winner take all. Neither contender successfully revived\nthe actual dead woman Roden dug up for their exercise. Their conflict subsequently\ndevolved into an exchange of gunfire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Davidians\u2019 Waco compound was called Mount Carmel, after the Biblical reference. 1 Kings relates the story of the prophet Elijah calling down fire from heaven on Mount Carmel during his showdown with the 450 prophets of Baal. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

George Roden was wounded and remanded to an insane asylum. Howell was charged with attempted murder, but his legal journey ended in a mistrial. With George safely institutionalized, Vernon and his followers paid the back taxes and took control of the sect\u2019s Mount Carmel headquarters. They subsequently discovered Roden\u2019s abandoned meth lab and reported it to the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Though clearly a fun-loving guy, David Koresh sort of went off the rails once he got settled into the Davidian compound. He had previously headed to the West Coast in hopes of becoming a rock star. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1990 Vernon Howell formally petitioned to change his name to David Koresh. Koresh was a reference to the ancient Persian King, Cyrus the Great, who freed the Jews from Babylonian captivity some 2,500 years ago. The David bit turned on his disputable claim of direct lineage to the Biblical King David. Koresh claimed he was, \u201cprofessing himself to be the spiritual descendant of King David, a messianic figure carrying out a divinely commissioned errand.\u201d Wow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll Skip a Bit at\nThis Point\u2026.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
Koresh taught an apocalyptic doctrine that involved a violent end times showdown between the Davidians and sinister pagan forces. The actual final conflagration fit eerily into his dark prophecy. This is what remained of a Barrett M82 .50-caliber anti-materiel rifle that was recovered from the incinerated compound. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Koresh and his merry mob had a serious weakness for ordnance. There were allegations of child abuse and polygamy, but none of that prompted an armed government response or even a serious investigation. It was the guns that put the government in play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Larry Gilbreath was the UPS driver who first reported Koresh and the Davidians to the authorities. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A UPS driver reported that one of many\npackages he delivered to the compound had broken open, exposing grenade casings\nand black powder. When Koresh found out about the investigation he invited the\nATF out to the compound to inspect his guns. They declined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
According to current legal interpretation, you can be convicted of possession of an illegal machinegun just by having the parts to potentially build one. This was the original impetus behind the search warrant that led to the Davidian debacle. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Koresh had mail-ordered quite a lot of M16 parts. The ATF obtained a search warrant on the premise that the Davidians were in \u201cconstructive possession\u201d of potential automatic weapons in violation of the oddly titled Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986. This oxymoronic piece of legislation outlawed the manufacture of automatic weapons for sale to civilians. Prior to that time building machineguns was perfectly legal so long as the rules were followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The original BATF raid of the Davidian compound was short on military ordnance. The subsequent FBI siege was an altogether different matter. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The government apparently falsely alleged\nthat Koresh was operating a meth lab. This drug nexus allowed the BATF to\nrequisition military assets. However, the Army Special Forces commander upon\nwhom the request fell was not impressed, so the ATF received only training\nspace along with medical and communication equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Showtime<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The original raid on the compound was doomed from the outset. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday morning February 28, 1993, a convoy of civilian vehicles containing a large number of heavily armed BATF agents approached the compound. They called the mission Operation Showtime. A local TV reporter notified in advance asked a letter carrier for directions. Unbeknownst to the feds, the mailman was Koresh\u2019s brother-in-law. Any element of surprise was irretrievably lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The actual firefight was a horrible bloodbath for both sides. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Both sides claimed the other fired first.\nThe firefight dragged on for two hours and only ended when the BATF assault\nteams ran out of ammunition. When the dust cleared four BATF agents were dead\nand another sixteen were wounded. Five Davidians died, two of whom were killed\nby their peers after having been badly wounded. Another Davidian was shot dead\ntrying to re-enter the compound after the initial raid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The FBI requisitioned enough military armor to form a tidy combined-arms task force. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The FBI took over the operation, and for the next 51 days, the eyes of the world were on Mount Carmel. Nine M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles along with five M728 Combat Engineer Vehicles and a pair of M1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks were requisitioned from nearby Fort Hood. They flattened the compound\u2019s outbuildings in short order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Attorney General Janet Reno was fairly new to her job, and many of the operational elements had been involved in the Ruby Ridge fiasco the previous year. An artificial sense of urgency pushed circumstances out of control. Interesting facts\u2014Janet Reno was 6\u20192\u201d tall and died of Parkinson\u2019s disease in 2016. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Attorney General Janet Reno made the case\nto President Clinton to assault the compound with armored vehicles and tear\ngas. She claimed that the Davidians were beating babies, the FBI Hostage Rescue\nTeam was tired, and that the siege was costing a cool million dollars per week.\nThe baby-beating thing was not necessarily true, but, no matter, on April 19\nthe government deployed their gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The practical origins of the fire are really immaterial. Scores of people died in the inferno. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Somewhere along the way a fire started. Conspiracy\ntheories abound concerning the details, none of which really matter. 76 Davidians\ndied including 28 children. It was horrible by any conceivable metric. Two weeks\nlater the site was conveniently bulldozed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Guns<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The Davidians stockpiled weapons expecting to need them during the predicted End of Days. At the time of the assault, they had around 1.9 million rounds of ammunition. This photograph also includes several rare USAS12 shotguns. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The charred wreckage of the compound\nultimately produced 305 Davidian firearms, mostly AR15 and AK47 variants. There\nwere also multiple shotguns, revolvers, and pistols. There were a total of 46\nautomatic weapons discovered among the debris, 22 of which were converted AR15s.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
In addition to the pedestrian black rifles, Koresh and his followers had a few exotic guns like this HK SP89. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Twenty selective-fire AK rifles along with a pair of full-auto HK SP89\u2019s and two converted M11\/Nine\u2019s were documented. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The drop-in auto sear was sold freely prior to an administrative ban in 1981. In concert with a standard set of M16 internal parts, this inspired little device converts any standard AR rifle to full auto. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another pair of stripped full auto AR\nlowers and 39 AR15 drop-in auto sears were recovered. There were also another\n88 unmolested AR15 lowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The .50-caliber rifles known to be in the compound were used to justify requisitioning all the military armored vehicles. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There were countless magazines, 100\nhollow M21 practice grenades, 200 inert M231 rifle grenades, chemical warfare\ngear, and night vision imaging systems found in the rubble. The final report\nincluded fifteen sound suppressors, several Kevlar helmets, and body armor. The\nTreasury Department report included 21 suppressors, but it was later determined\nthat spent government tear gas casings had been erroneously counted as silencers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruminations<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The fact that the Davidians were so far outside the American mainstream made them easy to demonize. The media and government agencies described them as a doomsday cult. That made it easier to justify the resulting heavy-handed tactics. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nobody disputes that the Branch Davidians were weird. However, they maintained surprisingly good relations with their neighbors. Being weird isn\u2019t an adequate impetus to be burned to death even in Beto\u2019s America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
It was fear of the Davidians\u2019 illegal firearms that ultimately precipitated this disaster. In the final analysis, everybody on both sides lost. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The allegations of underage marriage and child abuse were rightfully disconcerting, but that isn\u2019t what brought out the armored vehicles. Investigating child abuse is more a social worker thing than something involving hundreds of tactical officers with automatic weapons. Prior to the raid, the argument could be made that nobody innocent had been physically hurt. It really all came down to the guns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
I can honestly say I have never met a bad BATF agent. All the BATF examiners and Special Agents I have encountered both personally and professionally have been invariably courteous, helpful, knowledgeable, and friendly. The astute gun nerd will note that this MP5 is semiauto only. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I have any number of dear friends who are\ncurrently active members of the BATF. They are without exception committed\npatriots who view their mission to protect the public while respecting\nindividual rights as a holy thing. The BATF rank and file is not currently the\nproblem. The entity ultimately responsible for all this death and chaos was the\nUS Congress. Seven years prior to the Waco raid these same guns would have been\nlegal to build and possess. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The practicalities of actually enforcing sweeping new gun control laws are where the issue gets sticky. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We stand on the edge of a precipice\npeering into the darkness. There are as many as 20 million black rifles in\nprivate hands in America. If only .1% of those gun owners refuse to surrender\ntheir arms peacefully we are looking at the potential for thousands of Waco\nmassacres. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
We Americans should not be expected to be quite so placid about gun confiscation as were our brethren in other countries. Gun ownership in America is on a totally different scale. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Beto O\u2019Rourke, Kamala\nHarris, and those like them need to count the cost. This is not Australia, New\nZealand, or the UK. We Americans don\u2019t have a terribly\ngood track record of peacefully rolling over when the government tries to take\nour stuff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Absolutely nothing good came from the Waco tragedy. There were loss and horror aplenty on both sides. Note the M14. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Davidians were undeniably unbalanced.\nHowever, when our elected officials make sparkly new gun control laws some poor\nslobs are going to have to enforce them. I pray more sensible heads prevail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
There is trouble enough in the world without criminalizing law-abiding American gun owners. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose who cannot\nremember the past are condemned to repeat it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

–George Santayana<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The three CH47D Chinook helicopters present during the siege came from my Battalion and were tasked with mass casualty transport. As absolutely everybody in the compound died they ultimately returned to base empty and unused. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Weapons of Mass Destruction are nukes and\nchemical warfare agents. Machineguns are really just good tools to help you run\nout of ammunition quickly. The unjustified stigma attached to these typically\nforbidden tools is driven by the media and remains quite powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
There\u2019s nothing mystical about fully automatic weapons. I would feel much safer being chased by some unwashed miscreant with a full auto MAC10 than by a seasoned redneck with a properly zeroed deer rifle. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Buy and Sell on GunsAmerica!<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Weapons of Mass Destruction are nukes and chemical warfare agents. Machineguns are really just good tools to help you run out of ammunition quickly. The unjustified stigma attached to these typically forbidden tools is driven by the media and remains quite powerful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":117167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_specdata_upc":"","_specdata_placement":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[257,772],"tags":[132,102,469,752,636],"featured":[],"hunt365":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-117134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-historical-guns","8":"category-will-dabbs","9":"tag-buzz","10":"tag-feature-articles","11":"tag-gun-control","12":"tag-historical-guns","13":"tag-history"},"yoast_head":"\nThe Guns of the Waco Disaster: A Cautionary Tale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Guns of the Waco Disaster: A Cautionary Tale - Will Dabbs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/the-waco-disaster-a-cautionary-tale\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Guns of the Waco Disaster: A Cautionary Tale\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Weapons of Mass Destruction are nukes and chemical warfare agents. 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