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</div><div>in the run-up to the U.S. midterm elections, some politicians continue to ride the wave of what's known as "Christian nationalism" in ways that are increasingly vocal and direct.</div>GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right Donald Trump loyalist from Georgia, told an interviewer on July 23, 2022, that the Republican Party "need[s] to be the party of nationalism. And I'm a Christian, and I say it proudly, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/27/opinions/christian-nationalism-marjorie-taylor-greene-tyler/index.html" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">we should be Christian nationalists</a>."Similarly, Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado, recently <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1109141110" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">said</a>, "The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church." Boebert called the separation of church and state "junk."Many Christian nationalists repeat conservative activist <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/29/texas-church-state-separation-opposition/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">David Barton's</a> argument that the Founding Fathers did not intend to keep religion out of government.As a scholar of racism and communication who has written about <a href="http://contemporaryrhetoric.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Perry8_1_2_5.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">white nationalism</a> during the Trump presidency, I find the amplification of Christian nationalism <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/944_OPSR_TEVUS_Comparing-Violent-Nonviolent-Far-Right-Hate-Groups_Dec2011-508.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">unsurprising</a>. Christian nationalism is prevalent among Trump supporters, as religion scholars <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=I1K3emoAAAAJ&hl=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Andrew Whitehead</a> and <a href="https://www.ou.edu/cas/soc/people/faculty/samuel-perry" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Samuel L. Perry</a> argue in their book "<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/taking-america-back-for-god-9780190057886?cc=us&lang=en&" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Taking Back America for God</a>."Perry and Whitehead <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=BDLNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">describe the Christian nationalist movement</a> as being "as ethnic and political as it is religious," noting that it relies on the assumption of white supremacy. Christian nationalism combines belief in a particular form of Christianity with nativist and populist political platforms. American Christian nationalism is a worldview based on the belief that America is superior to other countries, and that that superiority is divinely established. In this mindset, only Christians are true Americans.[real am]Parts of the movement fit into a broader right-wing extremist history of violence, which has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/aps.43" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">been on the rise</a> <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/escalating-terrorism-problem-united-states" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">over the past few decades</a> and was particularly on display <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/28/opinion/christian-nationalists-capitol-attack.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">during the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021</a>.The vast majority of Christian nationalists never engage in violence. Nonetheless, <a href="https://nationalcouncilofchurches.us/common-witness-ncc/the-dangers-of-christian-nationalism-in-the-united-states-a-policy-statement-of-the-national-council-of-churches/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Christian nationalist thinking</a> suggests that unless Christians control the state, the state will suppress Christianity.From siege to militia buildupViolence perpetrated by Christian nationalists has manifested in two primary ways in recent decades. The first is through their <a href="http://www.religion-online.org/article/militias-christian-identity-and-the-radical-right/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">involvement in militia groups</a>; the second is seen in <a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43406-3_3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">attacks on abortion providers</a>.The catalyst for the growth of militia activity among contemporary Christian nationalists stems from <a href="https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510356/no-compromise" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">two events</a>: the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff and the 1993 siege at Waco.At Ruby Ridge, former Army Green Beret Randy Weaver engaged federal law enforcement in an 11-day standoff at his rural Idaho cabin over charges relating to the sale of sawed-off shotguns to an ATF informant investigating <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/08/18/544523302/how-what-happened-25-years-ago-at-ruby-ridge-still-matters-today" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Aryan Nation</a> white supremacist militia meetings.Weaver ascribed to the <a href="https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/106598/Contribution_514_final.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Christian Identity movement</a>, which emphasizes adherence to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2645906" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Old Testament laws</a> and white supremacy. Christian Identity members believe in the application of the <a href="https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/fall-2012-politics-issue/his-truth-marching" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">death penalty</a> for adultery and LBGTQ relationships in accordance with their reading of some biblical passages.During the standoff, Weaver's wife and teenage son were shot and killed before he surrendered to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/26/ruby-ridge-1992-modern-american-militia-charlottesville" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">federal authorities</a>.In the Waco siege a year later, cult leader David Koresh and his followers entered a standoff with federal law enforcement at the group's Texas compound, once again concerning <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/4/19/17246732/waco-tragedy-explained-david-koresh-mount-carmel-branch-davidian-cult-25-year-anniversary" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">weapons charges</a>. After a 51-day standoff, federal law enforcement laid siege to the compound. A fire took hold at the compound in disputed circumstances, leading to the deaths of 76 people, including Koresh.The two events spurred a nationwide <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/26/ruby-ridge-1992-modern-american-militia-charlottesville" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">militia buildup</a>. As sociologist Erin Kania <a href="https://docs.rwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=rr" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">argues</a>: "Ruby Ridge and Waco confrontations drove some citizens to strengthen their belief that the government was overstepping the parameters of its authority. … Because this view is one of the founding ideologies of the American Militia Movement, it makes sense that interest and membership in the movement would sharply increase following these standoffs between government and nonconformists."Distrust of the government blended with strains of <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1995-04-24-9504240157-story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Christian fundamentalism</a> have brought together two groups with formerly disparate goals.Christian nationalism and violenceChristian fundamentalists and white supremacist militia groups both figured themselves as targeted by the government in the aftermath of the standoffs at Ruby Ridge and Waco. As <a href="https://www.hofstra.edu/faculty/fac_profiles.cfm?id=177" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">scholar of religion Ann Burlein</a> <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/lift-high-the-cross" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">argues</a>, "Both the Christian right and right-wing white supremacist groups aspire to overcome a culture they perceive as hostile to the white middle class, families, and heterosexuality."Significantly, in 1995, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and accomplice Terry Nichols <a href="http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mcveigh/mcveighaccount.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">cited revenge</a> for the Waco siege as a motive for the bombing of the Alfred Murrah federal building. The terrorist act killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.Since 1993, at least 11 people have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/29/us/30abortion-clinic-violence.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">murdered in attacks on abortion clinics</a> in cities across the U.S., and there have been numerous other plots.They have involved people like <a href="https://womrel.sitehost.iu.edu/REL%20133/Juergensmeyer_Terror/Soldiers%20for%20Christ.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">the Rev. Michael Bray</a>, who attacked multiple abortion clinics. Bray was the spokesman for Paul Hill, a Christian Identity adherent who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/us/florida-executes-killer-of-an-abortion-provider.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">murdered</a> physician John Britton and his bodyguard James Barrett in 1994 outside of a Florida abortion clinic.In yet another case, Eric Rudolph bombed the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. In his confession, he cited his opposition to abortion and anti-LGBTQ views as <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4600480" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">motivation to bomb</a> Olympic Square.These men cited their involvement with the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2018/holy-hate-far-right%E2%80%99s-radicalization-religion" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Christian Identity</a> movement in their trials as motivation for engaging in violence.Mainstreaming Christian nationalist ideasThe presence of Christian nationalist ideas in recent political campaigns is concerning, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-021-09758-y" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">given its ties to violence and white supremacy</a>.Trump and his advisers helped to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/18/opinion/christian-nationalism-great-replacement.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">mainstream</a> such rhetoric with events like his <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/11/22527796/ig-report-trump-bible-lafayette-square-protest" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">photo op with a Bible</a> in Lafayette Square in Washington following the violent dispersal of protesters, and making a show of pastors <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-secretly-mocks-his-christian-supporters/616522/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">laying hands on him</a>. But that legacy continues beyond his administration.Candidates like <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-pennsylvania-religion-nationalism-8bf7a6115725f508a37ef944333bc145" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Doug Mastriano</a>, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania who attended the Jan. 6 Trump rally, are now using <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/a-pennsylvania-lawmaker-and-the-resurgence-of-christian-nationalism" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">the same messages</a>.In some states, such as Texas and Montana, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/24/politics/texas-far-right-politics-invs/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">hefty funding</a> for <a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/power-issue-tim-dunn-pushing-republican-party-arms-god/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">far-right Christian candidates</a> has helped put Christian nationalist ideas in the mainstream.Blending politics and religion is not necessarily a recipe for Christian nationalism, nor is Christian nationalism a recipe for political violence. At times, however, Christian nationalist ideas can <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-021-09758-y" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">serve as a prelude</a>.<div>=</div></div><div>
</div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> =</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.thewaroneveryone.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">http://www.thewaroneveryone.com/</a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="font-size: small;">Chapter 7: The Digital Reich
In the years since the OKC bombing, the white supremacist movement seems to have spent most of its fury. Nothing like Seadrift occurred in the late 90s. Nazi violence, when it happened, was mostly focused around racist skinheads and groups like 'the White Aryan Resistance' or 'the Hammerskin Nation'. In 1996, a group called 'the Aryan Republican Army' robbed 22 banks in the midwest. Several of them had ties to Elohim City, where Tim McVeigh had also tried to hide out after his attack, but these, and other eruptions of violence, were dealt with in short order. By the time the early 2000s rolled along, and the War on Terror kicked off, you could be forgiven for thinking the white supremacist movement was on its way out."Everything You Love Will Burn", by Vegas Tenholdt, chronicles the movement during this period. One of the largest actions in these days was an 80 man march in Toledo by the National Socialist Movement. Putting together a march that large was the work of the entire national organization, and they were so overwhelmed by counter-protesters that they were never able to take to the streets. Back in Seadrift Louis Beam got three-or-four-hundred Klansman just to show up in Texas. In 2010, the National Socialist movement held a gathering in Trenton, New Jersey. Vegas attended to chronicle the event and the night before the march he was present when a group called 'Anti-racist Action' assaulted the nazis as they ate dinner in a rented meeting hall. The next day, the National Socialist movement marched, "The entire route of the march was lined with national guard and riot police, they'd closed off every access point and no one was around to watch the nazis trudge along the wet streets while the rain soaked their black uniforms. They arrived at a wide square in front of the capitol building, a few modest steps led up to the entrance, and a small podium stood at the top. Police had cordoned there, and off in the distance counter-protesters had gathered. The police, fearing another showdown, kept them two blocks away from the nazis, just barely within shouting distance, so the rally was reduced to a couple dozen neo-nazis screaming obscenities at 50 or so anti-racist demonstrators down the street while the anti-racists screamed right back."The National Socialist Movement billed itself as direct successors to George Lincoln Rockwell's party. In 5 years they'd gone from being able to make a national gathering of 80 men down to less than 30. But looking at those numbers does not give a full picture of the American fascist movement during this period. While the ability of old guard fascist groups like the NSM and the clan to draw numbers had declined, the movement was deep in the process of spreading to a new generation through new means.In the last chapter, I mentioned John Ronson's 'Them'. John;s book givews us a look at the movment in the late 1990s from the perspective of individuals like Alex Jones. Jones first rose to prominence within the fringe-right in the mid/late 1990s, and his career illustrates the first stages of what would grow to be known as the alt-right. Now on paper, Jones was a libertarian, a political independent who attacked democrats and republicans with equal vigor, seeing both as agents of the NWO and the globalist elite. You would not hear attacks on the Jews and ethnic groups from Jones, nor would you see him sporting a swastika, but if you dig in just a little bit, there have always been connections between Alex Jones and the fascist right. At one point in 'Them', John tried to infiltrate a meeting of the Bilderbirg Group with a writer named Big Jim Tucker, editor of 'the Spotlight', Willis Cartow's magazine. Big Jim Tucker was a friend and frequent guest on Alex Jones's 'Infowars' in its early days. Like Jones, Jim was obsessed with the Bilderbirg group, he viewed it as part of the Jewish conspiracy to dominate the globe. Jones possessed the same beliefs, minus the J-word. That 1999 gathering at the ruins of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco... well that gathering was an attempt to rebuild the Branch Davidian Church, organized by 25 year old Alex Jones. He told 'the Oklahoman', "We've had schoolteachers and black single mothers and auto-mechanics and doctors, there was even a Jewish rabbi out here one day helping us. Sure we've had folks in their camo hats with the militias helping us too." One of the men who gathered at Mt. Carmel that day to help Alex Jones was Col. Bo Grits.Grits was a legendary figure in the patriot movement: a decorated veteran, the supposed inspiration behind the character John Rambo, and a hardcore believer in Christian Identity theology. In 1998, right before the Mt. Carmel meeting, he sent out this in an online bulletin to his followers, "Do you see the sign, the scent, the stain, and mark of the beast on America today? Are you willing to submit and join this seedline of Satan? Look to those who are openly antichrist - who in the world are promoting abortion, pornography, pedophilia, godless laws, adultery, new-age international banking, entertainment industry, and world publishing - wherever you find perversions of god's laws you will find the worshipers of Baal with their roots still in Babylonian mysticism."...</div><p helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="margin: 1em 0px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div></div><div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege</a></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div> Waco siege was the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement" title="Law enforcement" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">law enforcement</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege" title="Siege" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">siege</a> of the compound that belonged to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion" title="Religion" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">religious</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sect" title="Sect" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">sect</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branch_Davidians" title="Branch Davidians" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Branch Davidians</a>. It was carried out by American <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_government_of_the_United_States" title="Federal government of the United States" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">federal</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas" title="Texas" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Texas</a> state law enforcement, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Armed_Forces" title="United States Armed Forces" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">U.S. military</a>, between February 28 and April 19, 1993.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-remembering-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[2]</a> The Branch Davidians were led by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Koresh" title="David Koresh" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">David Koresh</a> and were headquartered at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Carmel_Center" title="Mount Carmel Center" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Mount Carmel Center</a> ranch in the community of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axtell,Texas" title="Axtell, Texas" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Axtell, Texas</a>,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-3" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">[</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-3" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">3]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a> 13 miles (21 kilometers) northeast of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco,Texas" title="Waco, Texas" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Waco</a>. Suspecting the group of stockpiling illegal weapons, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Alcohol,Tobacco,and_Firearms" class="mw-redirect" title="Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms</a> (ATF) obtained a search warrant for the compound and arrest warrants for Koresh and a select few of the group's members.The incident began when the ATF attempted to serve a search and arrest warrant on the ranch. An intense gunfight erupted, resulting in the deaths of four government agents and six Branch Davidians. Upon the ATF's entering of the property and failure to execute the search warrant, a siege lasting 51 days was initiated by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation" title="Federal Bureau of Investigation" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Federal Bureau of Investigation</a> (FBI). Eventually, the FBI launched an assault and initiated a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tear_gas" title="Tear gas" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">tear gas</a> attack in an attempt to force the Branch Davidians out of the ranch. Shortly thereafter, the Mount Carmel Center quickly became engulfed in flames. The fire resulted in the deaths of 76 Branch Davidians, including 25 children, two pregnant women, and David Koresh himself.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-Gennaro_Maahs-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a>The events of the siege and attack are disputed by various sources. A particular controversy ensued over the origin of the fire; an internal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice" title="United States Department of Justice" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Justice Department</a> investigation concluded in 2000 that incendiary tear gas canisters were used by the FBI, but maintained that sect members had started the fire.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a> This came after a panel of arson investigators concluded that the Davidians were responsible for igniting it, simultaneously, in at least three different areas of the compound.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a> The events 13 miles from Waco, and the law enforcement siege at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge" title="Ruby Ridge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ruby Ridge</a> less than 12 months earlier, have been cited by commentators as catalysts for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing" title="Oklahoma City bombing" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Oklahoma City bombing</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_McVeigh" title="Timothy McVeigh" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Timothy McVeigh</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Nichols" title="Terry Nichols" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Terry Nichols</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a>
<div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 7px; display: table;"><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Background" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Background</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Prelude" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2Prelude</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#The_Aguilera_affidavit" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3The Aguilera affidavit</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#ATF_raid" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4ATF raid</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Preparations" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.1Preparations</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#February_28" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.2February 28</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#FBI_siege" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5FBI siege</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Final_assault_and_burning_of_Mount_Carmel" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">6Final assault and burning of Mount Carmel</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Chronology_of_events_of_April_19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">6.1Chronology of events of April 19</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Aftermath" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">7Aftermath</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Trial_and_imprisonments_of_Branch_Davidians" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">7.1Trial and imprisonments of Branch Davidians</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Civil_suits_by_Branch_Davidians" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">7.2Civil suits by Branch Davidians</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Controversies" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8Controversies</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-14" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Danforth_Report" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8.1Danforth Report</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-15" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Equipment_and_manpower" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">9Equipment and manpower</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-16" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Government_agencies" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">9.1Government agencies</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-17" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Branch_Davidians" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">9.2Branch Davidians</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-18" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Legacy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">10Legacy</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-19" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Oklahoma_City_bombing_connection" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">10.1Oklahoma City bombing connection</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-20" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Montana_Freeman_siege" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">10.2Montana Freeman siege</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-21" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Media_portrayals_of_Waco" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">10.3Media portrayals of Waco</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-22" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#See_also" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">11See also</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-23" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">12References</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-24" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Bibliography" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">13Bibliography</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-25" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Government_investigations_and_hearings" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">13.1Government investigations and hearings</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-26" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Legal_proceedings" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">13.2Legal proceedings</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-27" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Books" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">13.3Books</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-28" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#Videos" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">13.4Videos</a></li></ul></li></ul></div><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Background[</h2><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable" style="padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Main articles: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davidian_Seventh-day_Adventist" class="mw-redirect" title="Davidian Seventh-day Adventist" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Davidian Seventh-day Adventist</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Carmel_Center" title="Mount Carmel Center" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Mount Carmel Center</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branch_Davidians" title="Branch Davidians" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Branch Davidians</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Koresh" title="David Koresh" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">David Koresh</a></div>The Branch Davidians (also known as "The Branch") are a religious group that originated in 1955 from a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schism(religion)" class="mw-redirect" title="Schism (religion)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">schism</a> in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepherd%27s_Rod" title="Shepherd's Rod" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Shepherd's Rod</a> (Davidians) following the death of the Shepherd's Rod founder <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Houteff" title="Victor Houteff" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Victor Houteff</a>. Houteff founded the Davidians based on his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy" title="Prophecy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">prophecy</a> of an imminent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse" title="Apocalypse" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">apocalypse</a> involving the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Coming" title="Second Coming" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Second Coming</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus" title="Jesus" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Jesus Christ</a> and the defeat of the evil armies of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon(New_Testament)" class="mw-redirect" title="Babylon (New Testament)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Babylon</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a> As the original Davidian group gained members, its leadership moved the church to a hilltop several miles east of Waco, Texas, which they named Mount Carmel, after a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Carmel" title="Mount Carmel" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">mountain in Israel</a> mentioned in <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible(King_James)/Joshua#Chapter_19" class="extiw" title="wikisource:Bible (King James)/Joshua" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Joshua 19:26</a> in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible" title="Bible" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Bible</a>'s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Testament" title="Old Testament" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Old Testament</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-perrynetworker-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a>A few years later, they moved again to a much larger site east of the city. In 1959, Victor's widow, Florence Houteff, announced that the expected <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armageddon" title="Armageddon" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Armageddon</a> was about to take place, and members were told to gather at the center to await this event. Many of them built houses, others stayed in tents, trucks, or buses, and most of them sold their possessions.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-perrynetworker-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a>Following the failure of this prophecy, control of the site (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Carmel_Center" title="Mount Carmel Center" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Mount Carmel Center</a>) fell to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Roden" title="Benjamin Roden" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Benjamin Roden</a>, founder of the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventist Association (Branch Davidians). He promoted different doctrinal beliefs than those of Victor Houteff's original Davidian Seventh-day Adventist organization. On Roden's death, control of the Branch Davidians fell to his wife, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Roden" title="Lois Roden" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Lois Roden</a>. Lois considered their son, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Roden" title="George Roden" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">George Roden</a>, unfit to assume the position of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophet" title="Prophet" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">prophet</a>. Instead, she groomed Vernon Wayne Howell (later known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Koresh" title="David Koresh" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">David Koresh</a>) to be her successor.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">citation needed</a>]In 1984, a meeting led to a division of the group, with Howell leading one faction (calling themselves the Branch Davidians) and George Roden leading the competing faction. After this split, George Roden ran Howell and his followers off Mount Carmel at gunpoint. Howell and his group relocated to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine,Texas" title="Palestine, Texas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Palestine, Texas</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-CTPalestine1-13" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[13]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-TIMEMAGPalestine-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a>After the death of Lois Roden and probate of her estate in January 1987, Howell attempted to gain control of Mount Carmel Center by force.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a> George Roden had dug up the casket of one Anna Hughes from the Davidian cemetery and had challenged Howell to a resurrection contest to prove who was the rightful heir to the leadership. Howell instead went to the police and claimed Roden was guilty of corpse abuse, but the county prosecutors refused to file charges without proof.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-Clifford_L.Linedecker_1993,pages_70-76-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a><div class="thumb tleft" style="margin: 0.5em 1.4em 1.3em 0px; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: left; clear: left;"><div class="thumbinner" style="min-width: 100px; border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); padding: 3px; background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); text-align: center; overflow: hidden; width: 172px;">
<div class="thumbcaption" style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 3px; text-align: left;"><div class="magnify" style="float: right; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:David_koresh.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:David_koresh.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none">Vernon Howell (later David Koresh) in a 1987 mug shot</a></div></div></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:David_koresh.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none">On November 3, 1987, Howell and seven armed companions tried to get into the Mount Carmel chapel, intending to photograph the body in the casket as incriminating evidence. Roden was informed of the interlopers and opened fire. The Sheriff's Department responded about 20 minutes into the gunfight, during which Roden had been wounded. Sheriff Harwell got Howell on the phone and told him to stop shooting and surrender. Howell and his companions, dubbed the "Rodenville Eight" by the media, were tried for attempted murder on April 12, 1988. Seven were acquitted, and the jury hung on Howell's verdict. The county prosecutors did not press the case further.</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-Clifford_L.Linedecker_1993,pages_70-76-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a>Even with all the effort to bring the casket to court, the standing judge refused to use it as evidence for the case.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-:0-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a> Judge Herman Fitts ruled that the courtroom is no place for a casket when defense attorney Gary Coker requested it be used as evidence for the case. During questions about the said casket, Roden admitted to attempting to resurrect Anne Hughes on three occasions. The Rodenville Eight were forced to carry the casket down the street to a van awaiting the body.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">citation needed</a>]While waiting for the trial, Roden was put in jail under contempt of court charges because of his use of foul language<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-:1-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a> in some court pleadings. He threatened the Texas court with sexually transmitted diseases if the court ruled in Howell's favor. Alongside these charges, Roden was jailed for six months for legal motions he filed with explicit language. Roden faced 90 days in jail for living on the property after being ordered to neither live on the property nor call himself the leader of the religious group in a 1979 case.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-:1-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a> The next day, Perry Jones and several Howell's other followers moved from their headquarters in Palestine, Texas, to Mount Carmel.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">citation needed</a>] In mid-1989, Roden used an ax to kill a Davidian named Wayman Dale Adair, who visited him to discuss Adair's vision of being God's chosen <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah" title="Messiah" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">messiah</a>. He was found guilty under an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insanity_defense" title="Insanity defense" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">insanity defense</a> and was committed to a mental hospital. Shortly after Roden's commitment, Howell raised money to pay off all the back taxes on Mount Carmel owed by Roden and took legal control of the property.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-Breault_and_King-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[19]</a> After these legal proceedings, it was noted in a 90-minute interview by the Davidians attorney Douglas Martin that the religious group had been back and forth to court since 1955.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[20]</a>On August 5, 1989, Howell released the "New Light" audiotape, in which he said that God told him to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procreation" class="mw-redirect" title="Procreation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">procreate</a> with the women in the group to establish a "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davidic_line" title="Davidic line" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">House of David</a>" of his "special people." This involved separating married couples in the group, who had to agree that only he could have sexual relations with the wives, while the men should observe <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celibacy" title="Celibacy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">celibacy</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-Breault_and_King-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[19]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-who-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[21]</a> Howell also said that God had told him to start building an "Army for God" to prepare for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_time" title="End time" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">end of days</a> and a salvation for his followers.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-who-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[21]</a>Howell filed a petition in the California State Superior Court in Pomona on May 15, 1990, to legally change his name "for publicity and business purposes" to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Koresh" title="David Koresh" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">David Koresh</a>. On August 28, he was granted the petition.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[22]</a> By 1992, most of the land belonging to the group had been sold except for a core 77 acres (31 ha). Most of the buildings had been removed or were being salvaged for construction materials to convert much of the main chapel and a tall water tank into apartments for the resident members of the group. Many of the members of the group had been involved with the Davidians for a few generations, and many had large families.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-people10-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[23]</a><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Prelude[</h2><div class="quotebox pullquote floatright" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.8em 1.4em; clear: right; float: right; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 10px; max-width: 100%; width: 364.487px;"><div class="quotebox-quote left-aligned">If you are a Branch Davidian, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_claimed_to_be_Jesus" title="List of people claimed to be Jesus" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Christ lives</a> on a threadbare piece of land 10 miles [16 km] east of here called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Carmel_Center" title="Mount Carmel Center" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Mount Carmel</a>. He has dimples, claims a ninth-grade education, married his legal wife when she was 14, enjoys a beer now and then, plays a mean guitar, reportedly packs a 9 mm Glock and keeps an arsenal of military assault rifles, and willingly admits that he is a sinner without equal.</div><cite class="left-aligned" style="font-style: normal; display: block;">—Opening passage of "The Sinful Messiah", <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_Tribune-Herald" title="Waco Tribune-Herald" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Waco Tribune-Herald</a>, February 27, 1993<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-sm-24" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[24]</a></cite></div>On February 27, 1993, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_Tribune-Herald" title="Waco Tribune-Herald" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Waco Tribune-Herald</a> began publishing "The Sinful Messiah", a series of articles by Mark England and Darlene McCormick, who reported allegations that Koresh had physically abused children in the compound and had committed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_rape" title="Statutory rape" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">statutory rape</a> by taking multiple underage brides. Koresh was also said to advocate <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygamy" title="Polygamy" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">polygamy</a> for himself and declared himself married to several female residents of the small community. The paper claimed that Koresh had announced he was entitled to at least 140 wives and that he was entitled to claim any of the women in the group as his, that he had fathered at least a dozen children, and that some of these mothers became brides as young as 12 or 13 years old.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-sm-24" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[24]</a>In addition to allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct, Koresh and his followers were suspected of stockpiling <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapon_possession(crime)" class="mw-redirect" title="Weapon possession (crime)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">illegal weapons</a>. In May 1992, Chief Deputy Daniel Weyenberg of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLennan_County,Texas" title="McLennan County, Texas" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">McLennan County</a> Sheriff's Department called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Alcohol,Tobacco_and_Firearms" class="mw-redirect" title="Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms</a> (ATF) to notify them that his office had been contacted by a local <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Parcel_Service" title="United Parcel Service" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">UPS</a> representative concerned about a report by a local driver. The UPS driver said a package had broken open on delivery to the Branch Davidian residence, revealing firearms, inert grenade casings, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_powder" class="mw-redirect" title="Black powder" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">black powder</a>.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">citation needed</a>]On June 9, the ATF opened a formal investigation and a week later it was classified as sensitive, "thereby calling for a high degree of oversight" from both Houston and headquarters.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-federal_activities_investigation-25" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[25]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-why_act-26" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[26]</a> The documentary Inside Waco claims that the investigation started when in 1992 the ATF became concerned over reports of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_weapon" class="mw-redirect" title="Automatic weapon" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">automatic gunfire</a> coming from the Carmel compound.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-iw-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a> On July 30, ATF agents David Aguilera and Skinner visited the Branch Davidians' gun dealer Henry McMahon, who tried to get them to talk with Koresh on the phone. Koresh offered to let ATF inspect the Branch Davidians' weapons and paperwork and asked to speak with Aguilera, but Aguilera declined.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-28" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[28]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-29" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[29]</a>Sheriff Harwell told reporters regarding law enforcement talking with Koresh, "Just go out and talk to them, what's wrong with notifying them?"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-30" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[30]</a> The ATF began surveillance from a house across the road from the compound several months before the siege. Their cover was noticeably poor (the "college students" were in their 30s, had new cars, were not registered at the local schools, and did not keep a schedule that would have fit any legitimate employment or classes).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-31" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[31]</a> The investigation included sending in an undercover agent, Robert Rodriguez, whose identity Koresh learned, though he chose not to reveal that fact until the day of the raid.The ATF obtained a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_warrant" title="Search warrant" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">search warrant</a> on suspicion that the Davidians were modifying guns to have illegal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_firearm" title="Automatic firearm" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">automatic fire</a> capability. Former Branch Davidian Marc Breault claimed that Koresh had "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M16_rifle" title="M16 rifle" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">M16</a> lower <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Receiver(firearms)" title="Receiver (firearms)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">receiver</a> parts"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-Breault_and_King-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[19]</a> (combining M16 trigger components with a modified <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15" class="mw-redirect" title="AR-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">AR-15</a> lower receiver is, according to ATF regulations, "constructive possession" of an unregistered machine gun, regulated in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearm_Owners_Protection_Act" title="Firearm Owners Protection Act" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-Hughes_Amendment-32" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[32]</a>).<h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Aguilera affidavit[</h2>The ATF used an affidavit filed by David Aguilera to obtain the warrant that led to the Waco siege. The official filing date of this affidavit was February 25, 1993.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-:2-33" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[33]</a> Allegedly, the initial investigation began in June 1992 when a postal worker informed a sheriff of McClennan County that he believed he had been delivering explosives to the ammo and gun store owned and operated by the Branch Davidians. This store named the "Mag-Bag", had been identified by the said postal worker as suspicious in deliveries. The postal worker continued deliveries to the Mt. Carmel Center and reported seeing manned observation posts; in the affidavit, it states he believed there was armed personnel at these observations posts.The McClennan county sheriff was notified in May and June of that year of two cases of inert grenades, black gunpowder, 90 pounds of powdered aluminum metal, and 30–40 cardboard tubes. Furthermore, the sheriff noticed another shipment of sixty AR-15/M-16 magazines, to which Aguilera made the statement, "I have been involved in many cases where defendants, following a relatively simple process, convert AR-15 semi-automatic rifles to fully automatic rifles of the nature of the M-16" to justify the ATF's involvement in the case.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-:2-33" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[33]</a>In November of 1992, a local farmer reported to the sheriff that he had heard machine gunfire. "By the sound of it," he said, "it was likely a .50 caliber machine gun and multiple M-16s." This farmer claimed he was very familiar with machine guns, having done a tour overseas in the U.S Army. The affidavit closed with Aguilera verifying the story via interviews made with associated parties and gun shops from which the Mag-Bag purchased items. Among these items were over forty-five AR-15 upper receivers and five M-16 upper receivers, which Aguilera annotated, "These kits contain all the parts of an M-16 gun except for the lower receiver unit, which is the 'firearm' by lawful definition," admitting that neither the noise complaints nor the items ordered were necessarily illegal.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-34" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[34]</a><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ATF raid[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Waco_siege&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: ATF raid" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit</a>]</h2><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Preparations[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Waco_siege&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Preparations" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit</a>]</h3><div class="thumb tright" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 1.3em 1.4em; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: right; float: right;"><div class="thumbinner" style="min-width: 100px; border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); padding: 3px; background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); text-align: center; overflow: hidden; width: 222px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Branch_Davidian_Compound_Near_Waco.jpg" class="image" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Branch_Davidian_Compound_Near_Waco.jpg/220px-Branch_Davidian_Compound_Near_Waco.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="178" class="thumbimage" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Branch_Davidian_Compound_Near_Waco.jpg/330px-Branch_Davidian_Compound_Near_Waco.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Branch_Davidian_Compound_Near_Waco.jpg/440px-Branch_Davidian_Compound_Near_Waco.jpg 2x" data-file-width="5860" data-file-height="4739" style="border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></a><div class="thumbcaption" style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 3px; text-align: left;"><div class="magnify" style="float: right; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Branch_Davidian_Compound_Near_Waco.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none" /></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Branch_Davidian_Compound_Near_Waco.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none">The Branch Davidian compound as photographed during the ensuing siege</a></div></div></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Branch_Davidian_Compound_Near_Waco.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" w="w" resources="resources" src="src" mediawiki.skinning="mediawiki.skinning" images="images" magnify-clip-ltr.svg="magnify-clip-ltr.svg" e="e" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" width="width" height="height" user-select="user-select" none="none">Using the </a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affidavit" title="Affidavit" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">affidavit</a> filed by Aguilera that alleged that the Davidians had violated <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_United_States" title="Law of the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">federal law</a>, the ATF obtained search and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrest_warrant" title="Arrest warrant" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">arrest warrants</a> for Koresh and specific followers on weapons charges, citing the many firearms they had accumulated.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-35" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[35]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-36" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[36]</a> The search warrant commanded a search "on or before February 28, 1993", in the daytime between 6:00 am and 10:00 pm. The ATF made a claim that Koresh was possibly operating a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine" title="Methamphetamine" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">methamphetamine</a> lab, to establish a drug nexus and obtain military assets under the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs" class="mw-redirect" title="War on Drugs" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">War on Drugs</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-37" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[37]</a> Although the ATF's investigation "focused on firearm violations, not on illegal drugs", the ATF requested assistance from the DEA and the DOD "citing a drug connection" based on 1) a recent delivery to the compound of "chemicals, instruments, and glassware", 2) a written testimony from a former compound's resident, alleging "Howell had told him that drug trafficking was a desirable way to raise money", 3) several current residents who "had prior drug involvement", 4) two former residents who were incarcerated for drug-trafficking crimes, and 5) National Guard overflights' thermal images showing a "hot spot inside the compound, possibly indicating a methamphetamine laboratory".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-38" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[38]</a> Although the original request for assistance was initially approved, the commander of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Forces(United_States_Army)" class="mw-redirect" title="Special Forces (United States Army)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Special Forces</a> detachment questioned the request, and the ATF obtained only a training site at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hood" title="Fort Hood" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Fort Hood</a>, Texas, from February 25 to February 27 with safety inspections for the training lanes, and was given only medical and communications training and equipment.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-carlisle.army.mil-39" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[39]</a>The ATF had planned their raid for Monday, March 1, 1993, with the code name "Showtime".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-insight-40" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[40]</a> The ATF later claimed that the raid was moved up a day, to February 28, 1993, in response to the Waco Tribune-Herald's "The Sinful Messiah" series of articles (which the ATF had tried to prevent from being published).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-iw-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a> Beginning February 1, ATF agents had three meetings with Tribune-Herald staff regarding a delay in publication of "The Sinful Messiah". The paper was first told by the ATF that the raid would take place February 22, which they changed to March 1, and then ultimately to an indefinite date.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-PDF_of_actual_report-41" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[41]</a> ATF agents felt the newspaper had held off publication at the request of the ATF for at least three weeks. In a February 24 meeting between Tribune-Herald staff and ATF agent Phillip Chojancki and two other agents, the ATF could not give the newspaper staff a clear idea of what action was planned or when. The Tribune-Herald informed ATF they were publishing the series, which included an editorial calling for local authorities to act. Personnel of the Tribune-Herald found out about the imminent raid after the first installment of "The Sinful Messiah" had already appeared on February 27.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-PDF_of_actual_report-41" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[41]</a>Although the ATF preferred to arrest Koresh when he was outside Mount Carmel, planners received inaccurate information that Koresh rarely left it.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-42" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[42]</a> The Branch Davidian members were well known locally and had cordial relations with other locals. The Branch Davidians partly supported themselves by trading at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_shows_in_the_United_States" title="Gun shows in the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">gun shows</a> and took care to have the relevant paperwork to ensure their transactions were legal.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-bates1995-43" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[43]</a> Branch Davidian Paul Fatta was a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Firearms_License" title="Federal Firearms License" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">federal firearms licensed</a> dealer, and the group operated a retail gun business called the Mag Bag. When shipments for the Mag Bag arrived, they were signed for by Fatta, Steve Schneider, or Koresh. The morning of the raid, Paul Fatta and his son Kalani were on their way to an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin,Texas" title="Austin, Texas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Austin, Texas</a> gun show to conduct business.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-44" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[44]</a><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">February 28[</h3>The ATF attempted to execute their search warrant on Sunday morning, February 28, 1993. The local sheriff, in audiotapes broadcast after the incident, said he was not apprised of the raid. Despite being informed that the Branch Davidians knew a raid was coming, the ATF commander ordered that it go ahead, even though their plan depended on reaching the compound without the Branch Davidians being armed and prepared.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-iw-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a> While not standard procedure, ATF agents had their blood type written on their arms or neck after leaving the staging area and before the raid, because it was recommended by the military to facilitate speedy blood transfusions in the case of injury.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-agents_prepared-45" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[45]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-46" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[46]</a>Any advantage of surprise was lost when a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KWTX-TV" title="KWTX-TV" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">KWTX-TV</a> reporter who had been tipped off about the raid asked for directions from a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service" title="United States Postal Service" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">U.S. Postal Service</a> mail carrier who was coincidentally Koresh's brother-in-law.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-iw-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a> Koresh then told undercover ATF agent Robert Rodriguez that they knew a raid was imminent. Rodriguez had infiltrated the Branch Davidians and was astonished to find that his cover had been blown. The agent made an excuse and left the compound. When asked later what the Branch Davidians had been doing when he left the compound, Rodriguez replied, "They were praying." Branch Davidian survivors have written that Koresh ordered selected male followers to begin arming and taking up defensive positions, while the women and children were told to take cover in their rooms.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege#cite_note-iw-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a> Koresh told them he would try to speak to the agents, and what happened next would depend on the agents' intentions. The ATF arrived at 9:45 am in a convoy of civilian vehicles containing uniformed personnel in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWAT" title="SWAT" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">SWAT</a>-style tactical gear....</div><div>
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