🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3921572d.62530181@news.ican.net>,
  Ivan Gowch <gowch@SPAMMENOThotmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 15 May 2000 19:07:20 -0400, "James Doemer"
> <bigtoe@provide.net> wrote:
>
> ==>Just as a scenario, consider the possibility that someone on the
BATF/FBI,
> ==>say an inexperienced new agent, a bit trigger happy, and a bit
scared, fired
> ==>the first shot.    Would a person, not even considering the Branch
Davidians
> ==>for a second, but just any person, be availed of the right of self
defense
> ==>in that case?
>
> The issue of self-defence is hardly relevant here.  The fact is that
> it's stupid beyond belief -- suicidal, in fact

It quite probably is.   However it is relevant in the context that
people do have the right to self defense.   No one said that an act of
self defence had to be necesarily sane.   That very fact alone should
have been the government's greatest clue that a full frontal assault
was probably not the best approach against a compound of people with
assault weapons, led by a fanatic, self appointed, minister.


-- to engage a heavily
> armed force of government gunmen in a firefight.  You may have right
> on your side; you may the law on your side; you may have God on your
> side, but the fact is that if you shoot it out with government troops
> you're almost certain to end up dead.

There are those that are willing to die for right, law, and God.  That
is a fact.   It's basic human psychology.   People that feel that they
are being threatened will eventually fight back, no matter what the
odds of their survival.


 Governments seldom back down in
> these circumstances, and there's a never-ending supply of armed agents
> that can be sent into the fray.

True..


>
> Faced with that kind of situation, anyone who's not certifiably insane
> will surrender peacefully and let the lawyers argue it out later.

You're assuming a level of sanity that probably was not present.  There
is no denying that.   However, last I checked, even the insane have a
right to due process.   And WACO did not have to end that way.


>
> Martyrdom may be romantic, but it's so damned permanent.
>

Yet, there will always be martyrs.


Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.