First this was a citizen being shot at by the Federal Government. Second Randy Weaver the husband sued the Feds and the Taxpayers paid him off to settle the case in the sum of $3.1 million dollars. So you know the guilt was on the part of the Feds. Randy's wife was executed by the police. Randy's young son was executed by the police when he fired back at the cops. The family dog was shot and killed. So the video lasts 53.5 minutes and my quarrel with the video is how they characterized Randy Weaver. White separatist was said over and over. Randy did not claim he no longer was loyal to our country. He served in the Army as a Green Beret. So who recalls this case and were you upset his family was shot to death? At least the girls in the family who were children were not shot to death. Randy had a buddy at his home. This guy, Kevin was shot but lived. We can't reverse what happened. Question? Why should Randy be charged for sawing off several inches of a shotgun? The gun was not the Feds. They had no standing in the ownership. It was Randy's or one he did for some other guy.
I read the book Ambush at Ruby Ridge by Alan Bock many years ago. It corroborated my developing theory that the government is utterly out of control. Subsequent events have further corroborated that theory.
It still floors me that the Feds got involved at Ruby Ridge. Since I moved to Idaho, I made an effort to look that area up on the map and saw where the killings happened. I believe it is still 450 miles north of me.
It was pure grandstanding by the Feds...and because of THEIR screw-up! Weaver had been sent a court summons. He id not appear...because the summons had the wrong date on it! Rather than do what the US Marshall wanted (dismiss, re-file, and either head up to hand-deliver a new summons to Weaver or just put out a BOLO on his truck), F-troop decided to go full-on stormtrooper.
One perspective I read about this is that agents were trying to approach the house and ambush it by surprise, but unfortunately the dog was outside and would have made a lot of noise warning the people in the house if anyone was approaching. So one of the agents just decided to shoot the dog dead. But the family's 14-year-old son, who was outside carrying a rifle, saw the agent kill their dog and so he shot the agent. This immediately caused an escalation in the standoff. This is not that uncommon. I've read many stories of law enforcement just shooting a dog dead because it's easier than having to deal with that dog. A dog who is barking loudly and trying to attack can really get in the way of law enforcement trying to quickly, silently and efficiently enter onto a property.
