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When you take into account some of the things ATF has done in the past:
Ruby Ridge was created in large part by the ATF retaliating against Randy Weaver when he wouldn't agree to turn informant against the Aryan Nation. At least some of the charges they filed were blatantly false, such as accusing him of being a bank robber with criminal convictions. Those false charges were part of the reason that drove his defiance, the result being that his case was eventually turned over to the U.S. Marshals, and we know how that ended.
Waco was a bloodbath because ATF wanted to make a big splash. The following is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
The affidavit of ATF investigator David Aguilera for the search warrant claimed that there were over 150 weapons and 8,100 rounds of ammunition in the compound. The paperwork on the AR-15 components cited in the affidavit showed they were in fact legal semi-automatics; however, Aguilera told the judge: "I know based on my training and experience that an AR-15 is a semi-automatic rifle practically identical to the M-16 rifle.... I have been involved in many cases where defendants, following a relatively simple process, convert AR-15 semi-automatic rifles to fully automatic rifles of the nature of the M-16. ... Often times templates, milling machines, lathes and instruction guides are used by the converter."Aguilera stated in the affidavit and later testified at trial that a neighbor had heard machine-gun fire. However Aguilera failed to tell the magistrate that the same neighbor had previously reported the noise to the local Waco sheriff, who investigated the neighbor's complaint. Paul Fatta, who was also involved in the failed takeover of the group in 1987, told the New York Times that Koresh and he had visited the sheriff after the surveillance had been spotted and claimed that the sheriff's office told them their guns were legal.
Before the raid started, Koresh told an ATF agent who had infiltrated them that he knew who he was, and that they knew a raid was coming because of a warning they had received. The ATF went ahead anyway, and the rest is history.
As far as I'm concerned, the ATF is out of control. I don't care who takes them down. If a democrat won't do it, then to hell with them.
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