I'm not getting into this argument. We don't really know all that happened, and that includes you. You can assume all you want, and you can listen to only the information that backs up your theory. That's fine. But I'm going to acknowledge the truth that we really don't know. And because of that, I'm not going to fall into an emotional rage over anything that is connected to the incident. Say what you want, do what you want. I've said what I think and that's that for me.
I agree with that "we really don't know". I suspect on a gut-level that as in most things, the "truth is somewhere in the middle".
It seems to me it was mostly just a "comedy (tragedy) of errors" on both sides. In a purely pragmatic sense, and not a hyper-constitutional one, did the Weavers do some stupid stuff that got them the unwanted attention from the government? Absolutely.
Did the agents act in an over-zealous manner? Absolutely.
However, there was also adrenaline and fear motivating both sides as well. The agents may well have been terrified a wave of AK-wielding neo-nazi sympathizers and been trigger-happy as a result. Being afraid of not going home at the end of the day certainly would make me feel that way.
After the dog was shot by a suppressed weapon, and my kids were fired on, and a woman holding a baby was shot in broad daylight, add to it that my somewhat warped personal convictions making me afraid surrender might just mean execution right then and there, does not seem unreasonable either.
Any thinking person should seriously doubt that Lon Horiuchi willfully shot Vicki Weaver and endangered the infant she was holding out of cold blood. He either panicked, was riding the trigger while observing through his scope, or had a "fog of war" malfunction in his perceptions of what he was seeing.
However, whatever it was, and after playing devil's advocate for all sides at Ruby Ridge, Lon screwed up. Even if 99.9% of the population would screw up, or worse, under the same stress that's not the point. When you're one of those tip of the spear high-speed/low drag types, you're not
supposed to screw up. That is what those types get paid for, (meager as it may be) and what they get the titles and responsibilities they hold for.
So even if you leave the wider issues of rights, persecution, evil, whatever out of it, IMO H.S. still screwed up too. You don't choose the man who made the most infamous domestic law enforcement sniper shot in American history as a reference.
