This was a botched attempt for a PR coup against gun owners in an effort to push for more gun control!! The same as Fast and Furious gun running to Mexico was. The ATF could have picked up Koresh in town at any time without the raid.
I was upset at the time but didn't understand well I could see it but never was sure who started the fire.
The main reason I added this post is to ask if Alamo Girl is still with us, haven't seen her namee for a long time. She worked really hard on this as I recall.
Thanks for the comments. Back to bills. And FR contribution.
There was one LEO who refused to have anything to do with the raid. The McClennan County Sheriff. He told them if they’d call Koresh he’d come into town.
The story I always heard was the ATF needed a “big show” for budget justification. Far easier to go after isolated white guy nuts like Koresh & Weaver then real problems like the “Bloods & the Cripes”. The “white gun nuts” are off by themselves likely won’t put up much of a fuss if arrested You with media’s help tar them with all sorts of heinous crimes like child abuse. Besides the “Bloods & Cripes” are dangerous someone might get hurt. For the Waco/Koresh case “child abuse” was a good claim because Reno made her bones on a big Miami child abuse case. (Which turned to be bogus - a witch hunt & prosecutorial abuse! N just society that should have ended Reno’s career!)