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I know this is a dusty thread so apologies if anyone is irritated by that. Then again, topics like this cannot be over discussed because generations need to understand important events. Anyway, here goes...

My reading of the events from various sources all indicate that Vicki (God bless her soul) was the victim of a shot that wasn’t being aimed at her. She was standing behind a wooden door which was opened by Kevin Harris. Horiuchi was shooting at Harris and in fact the same shot which killed Vicki apparently also had struck Harris wounding him in the chest (yeah, I know - I’d like to see the ballistics analysis on that one too).

Still it was wrong. Later a task force investigating the seige found that Lon Horiuchi’s action in firing through a door was “inexcusable” since (1) he could not be sure if someone else was behind the door and (2) the Weavers and Harris were running for cover when the shot was taken, not returning fire.

There is no shortage of opinions on this incident but we’re all entitled to ours. Here’s mine: Ruby Ridge was the result of overzealousness of U.S. federal law enforcement agencies, specifically (IMO) the FBI HRT. A reading of the Rules of Engagement for that event pretty much unanimously invokes a “what the fu#&” reaction, even at the time from some officials on the scene. They were far too aggressive for the situation.

As to Lon Horiuchi’s actions that day, it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that his personality appears to be one of the “gee, I hope I’m allowed to shoot somebody today” variety. Was he operating with the rules of engagement with the first shot, the one which wounded Randy Weaver? Yes, he was technically clean on that first shot. But Weaver clearly was not posing any direct threat to him or any member of the law enforcement community at the time Horiuchi pulled the trigger that first time. Human judgement and conscience, it seems, should have intervened in Lon’s mind at that moment. The second shot (the one which killed Vicki and Wounded Kevin) was shaky according to the ROE, and clearly uncalled for in terms of human judgement. Lon, it appears, was a little trigger happy that day.

The FBI of course closed around Lon and protected their own. This is natural. I just hope that vetting of HRT snipers is now inclusive of weeding out the mentalities that WANT to shoot.