The initial contact at Waco was because ATF claimed the Davidians had semiautomatic rifles that had been converted to automatic by a “kit”.
These were semi-auto rifles that “looked like” the M-16 or AR-15 platform. In other words, just like what libs want to “ban” now, and are calling them “assault” weapons (not rifles, mind you, because if they did they would be dead wrong,since they are already specially licensed).
The “search warrant” serving was first by ATF, who blew it, bigtime.
Correction, the search warrant was issued because one agent thought the Davidians “could have” converted the rifles to full auto.
The search warrant was justified not on the basis there was proof that the Davidians had purchased anything illegal, but on the basis that they could be modifying legal arms to illegal arms, and that automatic weapon fire had been reported heard from the compound. When confronted by the sheriff about this, he said he was shown a “hellfire” system, and a letter from ATF saying this was legal and NOT a machine gun device.