Replies

>Let’s not mince words. Anyone who doesn’t believe, in the face of overwhelming evidence and testimony, that Koresh wasn’t molesting children really needs to pull his head out of the sand for awhile.

Look, I’ve got NOTHING but at best third-hand information on Koresh himself; if I was on a jury and hearing testimonies that would be different (hearing first-hand accounts).

But your insistence on condoning the raid because of his guilt in an unrelated area of the law is, frankly, disturbing. (As I recall the raid had NOTHING to do with sex; and EVERYTHING to do with taxes/firearms.) Koresh was also known to go into town very-nearly daily, it makes a WHOLE lot more sense to have a warrant and a few officers and snap him up there rather than expend all the manpower, equipment, money, and time in a standoff/raid situation.

Your non-answer of a reply reply on the question of some law-breaking invalidating legal protections leads to the question: do you condone no-knock warrants?

>I’m not saying that the raid was conducted properly (although I do believe the fire was started by Koresh’s groupies), but he was a scumbag criminal.

The problem with labels like ‘scumbag’ and ‘criminal’ is that they can so easily be applied to someone who is innocent of any wrongdoing.
Let me give you an example; my state, New Mexico, has the following in its State Constitution:
Article II, Sec. 6. [Right to bear arms.]
No law shall abridge the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms for security and
defense, for lawful hunting and recreational use and for other lawful purposes, but
nothing herein shall be held to permit the carrying of concealed weapons. No
municipality or county shall regulate, in any way, an incident of the right to keep
and bear arms.

It’s very simple: the state cannot legitimately pass laws restricting my right to carry weapons openly for self defense; neither can cities or counties punish/persecute me for choosing to do so (i.e. charging me with “disturbing the peace” because I was open-carrying).

Now, there also exists a State Statute which reads as follows:
30-7-2.4. Unlawful carrying of a firearm on university premises; notice; penalty.
A. Unlawful carrying of a firearm on university premises consists of carrying a firearm on university premises except by:
(1) a peace officer;
(2) university security personnel;
(3) a student, instructor or other university-authorized personnel who are engaged in army, navy, marine corps or air force reserve officer training corps programs or a state-authorized hunter safety training program;
(4) a person conducting or participating in a university-approved program, class or other activity involving the carrying of a firearm; or
(5) a person older than nineteen years of age on university premises in a private automobile or other private means of conveyance, for lawful protection of the person’s or another’s person or property.

B. A university shall conspicuously post notices on university premises that state that it is unlawful to carry a firearm on university premises.

C. As used in this section:
(1) “university” means a baccalaureate degree-granting post-secondary educational institution, a community college, a branch community college, a technical-vocational institute and an area vocational school; and
(2) “university premises” means:
—(a) the buildings and grounds of a university, including playing fields and parking areas of a university, in or on which university or university-related activities are conducted; or
—(b) any other public buildings or grounds, including playing fields and parking areas that are not university property, in or on which university-related and sanctioned activities are performed.

D. Whoever commits unlawful carrying of a firearm on university premises is guilty of a petty misdemeanor.

So, now let’s say that I went to class [New Mexico State University] open-carrying.

Would I be a criminal? {You could claim that I was for having violated a State Law, despite that it is Constitutionally invalid.}
Would I be a scumbag, for deliberately and flippantly defying that law? {Or perhaps you could say I’m a scumbag *because* I’m a criminal.}