It resonates 30 years later, because it means so many things to different people. It is still second only to Wounded Knee the deadliest action on American soil by American law enforcement to this date. What is undisputed is that within seconds the fiercest battle by the ATF was underway. It is not possible, I believe, to say whether the ATF or the Branch Davidians fired the first shot. That is what happened on February 28th, 1993, and the Branch Davidians shot back. 76 officers in riot gear pile out of disguised tarpaulins and covered cattle trailers and mount an assault on the compound where the Branch Davidians lived. These things were illegal, but do not generally lead to a situation in which the armed might of the US government rolls up your driveway. They were converting semi-automatic rifles into automatics. Their sect was an offshoot of the Seventh Day Adventists. The Davidians were a fundamentalist Christian sect. It began when the ATF still smarting from a botched raid in Ruby Ridge, was looking for a victory in Waco against David Koresh and his Branch Davidians. The round the clock news was still relatively new, and this strange event was suited to that wall-to-wall coverage. When I began working on Waco Rising a little over two years ago, I shared the memory of Americans who remember 1993 in Waco. Reading: Waco Rising: David Koresh, the FBI, and the Birth of America's Modern Militias is here
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