When you think of the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms agency, and the FBI, you’d like to think that they are there to protect others, right? Well, you couldn’t be more wrong because in the 90s, they had multiple unconstitutional raids and killings, so let’s start with the largest federally approved massacre that happened near Waco, Texas, 33 years ago, between February and April.
In the 1980s, David Koresh took leadership of the Branch Davidian religious group, a breakaway sect of the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists. Not only did Koresh take leadership of the group, but he also thought he was Jesus and that his children were holy.
The Branch Davidians lived on a 77-acre compound with just about everything needed for a religious sect, with one of these things being speakers, which will be important and kind of comedic later.
Koresh’s obsession with guns, specifically fully automatic rifles, really sparked the flame that would later become the deadliest raid in US history. Throughout May 1992 and January 1993, the ATF extensively investigated Koresh and members of the compound, and finally, in February, they put together a plan to arrest Koresh and a few other suspects within the compound.
On February 28th, 1993, Koresh was tipped off about the raid by a local postman who also happened to be a member of the Branch Davidians himself. By the time federal agents were even on the property of the compound, Koresh was waiting for them outside as they gave orders to conduct his arrest.
These orders would fall on deaf ears, and Koresh would turn back around, retreat into the house, and start firing through the door as agents approached.
This led to a 2.5-hour gunfight between a heavily armed religious group and federal agents. In this time span, 4 agents died, 20 were injured via gunfire/shrapnel, and 8 more were injured from various causes. After these losses, a ceasefire ensued, and Koresh released 24 members of the compound, most of them being children, but none of his own.
After many attempts at negotiation during the ceasefire, the agents started to play annoying music at full volume in an attempt to noise-torture the Branch Davidians. To say the least, it was a terrible idea.
Koresh was a musical man himself and loved playing guitar, So Koresh hooked up his guitar and started playing music for the agents to give them a taste of their own medicine.
After 51 days of the standoff, the agents gave up and started throwing tear gas into the compound so everybody would come out or suffocate. Again, the Branch Davidians hatched a final plan and started spreading fuel throughout the compound. A couple of hours after the fuel was spread, arson investigations show that the Branch Davidians deliberately set the compound on fire. More than 70 residents were killed, most of them allegedly died from gunshots inflicted by other Branch Davidians, and 9 more would escape. Of the 9 that escaped the fire, 8 were convicted of various crimes in federal court.
Found in the compound were 136 firearms of all varieties, over 700 magazines for said firearms, 200 thousand rounds of ammunition, 110 upper and lower receivers for AR-15/M16 rifles, grenade launcher attachments for AR15/M16 rifles, and 400+ empty M31 rifle grenades, along with black gunpowder and other explosive-making materials.
In the end, the Mount Carmel massacre was a reality check for federal agencies. The actions of the FBI and ATF were investigated by the Department of Justice, and were both found to have completed actions deemed “poorly executed,” and according to the ATF, they were criticized for these poorly executed actions. However, this criticism is what keeps things like this from happening today. History is taught so that it is not repeated, and this can be seen today with stricter rules of engagement and many adjustments made to save innocent lives involved in raids.
