Waco Siege Archives -

A Tale In Three Pictures

Do you recognize either the man or the location of the remnants of this fire?

Here let me give you a hint on the location.

Yes, that is the Branch Davidian compound in Mount Carmel outside of Waco, Texas as it is going up in flames. 76 men, women, and children died in that fire. The siege began when agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms raided the compound on February 28, 1993. 12 surviving members of the Branch Davidians were later tried on a variety of firearm offenses. The young man standing in the ashes holding what appears to be a ~~M16~~ M14 was the ATF case officer for the trial.

Maybe you recognize him in this picture.

Credit should go to the the British newspaper Daily Mail for linking the first photo to the man who is now President Biden’s choice to be the next Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The Daily Mail also has placed Chipman at the other infamous raid of that era – Ruby Ridge.

I guess Biden couldn’t get Waco Jim Cavanaugh so is making do with Chipman.

On April 19th…

April 19th commemorates a number of things.

The Battles of Lexington and Concord was fought on this day in 1775 and thus began the Revolutionary War. It is the day in which farmers, shopkeepers, and Minutemen united as a citizen militia to battle Gen. Thomas Gage’s British regulars when the latter came for the former’s guns and ammo. It is an official holiday in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts where officials have long forgotten what the spark was that ignited the war.

76 men, women, and children died a fiery death in Waco, Texas when the FBI launched their attack on the Branch Davidian compound on this day in 1993. Regardless of who actually started the gun battle between the Branch Davidians and the ATF in February, no one can deny that many innocents died in the fire.

Two years later in 1995 (corrected), Timothy McVeigh “commemorated” Waco by blowing up the Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. 168 men, women, and children died in the bombing and scores more were injured.

Dave Hardy at Of Arms and the Law notes that the Washington Post only remembers one of these events.

Frankly, we should remember all three as each event imparts a lesson we should learn. I’ll leave it to you and to history to figure out those lessons.