From: cescript@mtu.edu (Charles Scripter)
Subject: Re: Raid justification was: Blast them next time
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On Wed, 21 Apr 1993 03:52:11 GMT, Peter Cash (cash@convex.com) wrote:

> I just got through listening to the 10 o'clock news on Channel 4 here in
> Dallas. They trotted out a list of justifications produced by the ATF after
> "months of investigation" for their raid. 

CNN just claimed he bought 104 "semi-automatic assault rifles".  And
they say Koresh wasn't god-like...  He managed to buy or build a
collection of fully-automatic semi-automatic rifles...  Quite a feat,
I would say.  ;-)

They're still making charges of "sexual abuse" and such, or course.
Nobody seems to have noticed that the Treasury department has nothing
to do with sex crimes.  Or maybe the feds have recently instituted a
TAX on sex crimes...  Yeah, that's why the BATF was there, looking for
unregistered *guns* ("this is my weapon, this is my gun, this is for
fighting, this is for...").

> I couldn't believe the junk on this list! For example, the BDs were accused
> of stockpiling a bunch of "9mm and .223 ammunition that can be used in M15
> and M16 assault rifles". Imagine that--they had ammunition!

I also heard that they're claiming to be cautious because of Koresh's
"heated ammunition stockpile".  I seem to recall that smokeless powder
tends to decompose at even moderate temperatures.  I would be rather
surprised, after a fire of that nature, if *any* of his "stockpile" is
unexploded, or unburned.

> They also had
> aluminum dust! (Yeah, it's a component of thermite, but so far I haven't
> heard that it's illegal to take a grinder to the aluminum lawn
> furniture...)

I seem to recall that aluminum powder is a common component of
fireworks...  The folks on rec.pyro could probably tell you.

> The only thing on the list that could conceivably have been
> illegal was an M-79 grenade launcher. (Anybody know about this?)

I think *anything* is legal if you have the proper license.  If he had
a "curios and relics" permit, I believe he could legally own
handgrenades to go with his launcher.

--
Charles Scripter   *   cescript@phy.mtu.edu
Dept of Physics, Michigan Tech, Houghton, MI 49931
-------------------------------------------------------------
"...when all government... in little as in great things, shall be
drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render
powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will
become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we
separated."   Thomas Jefferson, 1821
