A repost from talk.religion.misc,talk.politics.guns,soc.culture.jewish:  From: cdt@sw.stratus.com (C. D. Tavares) Subject: Re: Who's next?  Mormons and Jews? Date: 20 Apr 1993 19:15:13 GMT Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc.  In article <C5rLnE.4pC@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>, pmy@vivaldi.acc.Virginia.EDU (Pete Yadlowsky) writes:  > >We used to live in a country where everyone enjoyed the free exercise of > >their rights to worship and bear arms.  > Arms? Automatic weapons, grenades, rocket launchers? The sorts of things > no family should be without, I guess.  All government claims.  If they were really stocking such weapons for Armageddon, how come they never used them?  > Anyway, I've often wondered what > business followers of Christ would have with weapons. It's hard to imagine a > pistol-packin' Jesus, though I suppose a pump-action shotgun would have > made clearing the temple a hell of a lot easier.  "The time is coming.  Those of you who have no sword, sell your shirt and  buy one... And they told him, Master, we have two swords.  And he said, It   is enough."  (LUKE ...)  "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace,  but the sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father,  and the daugher against her mother..."  (MATT 10 34-35)  > Well, when the nice federal officers come to my house to check out my > extensive weapons cache, I'll just be sure not to shoot at them. > "Tea, ladies and gentlemen?"  Just maybe you won't be home.  Then you can come home to something  like this:      "Well, it's been a rough month," begins Johnnie Lawmaster.  "I  just get laid off, and my divorce became final.  But I just wasn't  ready for what happened this particular Monday."      That particular Monday was was December 16, the first day of the  Bill of Rights' third century, the day when federal agents and local  law enforcement officer broke into the house in Tulsa that always flew  the U.S. flag.  When Lawmaster drove into the driveway that bleak  afternoon, one of his neighbors had some news.      "'Ohmigod, John, you are in big trouble!' my neighbor tells me.  'Sixty police, federal agents and the bomb squad busted in you house,  kicked down the door, cut locks off your gun safe.'  I couldn't  believe it.  Then I walked inside.  What a nightmare."      It was no nightmare; it was horribly real life.  Apparently acting  on information the Lawmaster possessed an illegal firearm, some thirty  agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) teamed up  with state and Tulsa police authorities, search warrant in hand, to  search for a "Colt, AR-15, .223 caliber machine gun, unknown serial  number."  The warrant, issued by U.S. Magistrate John Leo Wagner, also  authorized agents to seize "any tools used in the alteration or  modification of firearms, such as files or drills; documents, papers,  books, records, and other tangible properties which identify occupants  or owners of the property to be searched...."      Reports vary, but according to neighbors, the joint task force  operation aimed at the unemployed warehouseman from a nearby hospital  involved some 60 agents and local law enforcement personnel against  Lawmaster.  They cordoned off the street; took station with weapons  drawn in the back yard; used a battering ram to break through the  front door; kicked in the back door; broke into his gun safe; threw  personal papers around the house; spilled boxes of ammunition on the  floor; broke into a small, locked box that contained precious coins;  stood on a table to peer through the ceiling tiles, breaking the table  in the process.  Then, they left.  The doors were closed but not  latched, much less locked.  The ammo and guns were left unsecured.      "My front and back doors were pulled shut, but they were busted  through and couldn't latch.  Anybody could have waltzed in there and  stolen everything I own.  A child could have taken a gun.  The guns,  the safe -- everything was open and laying around.  I keep all my  magazines empty, but someone had loaded them.  While I was looking  around in amazement, the gas, electric and water companies show up to  turn the power off.  They said they were told to shut things down.  Then I found the note.  "Nothing Found - ATF."      "They didn't make any attempt to notify me.  I've lived in Tulsa  all my life and never got more than a traffic ticket.  How come they  can't look that up, realize I've been law-abiding my whole life, then  come to the door when I'm home?  They didn't leave someone here to  watch over my private property.  They didn't even come by to explain  what happened.  They just raided my home, ransaked it, left it wide  open and left."      Lawmaster placed a phone call to the local BATF agent.  "I asked,  'Are you gonna' arrest me?' and he said, 'No.'  I asken him, "Who is  going to repair and clean up my house?'  And he said, "If you're going  to talk to me, come down to my office.'      "'I can't come down!' I said.  'My doors are broken!'  If I had  been on vacation and I didn't have friendly neighbors, I would have  lost everything I own.  Here I am a competent, responsible firearms  owner, and the government leaves them open, unlocked, with ammo strewn  around."      Lawmaster said the agent advised him, "If you want your door to  lock and your gun safe to lock, you're gonna' have to pay for it  yourself."      "'Oh, I'll come right down, alright,' I told him.  'I'll come  down, but I'll bring my attorney.'  And he said, 'Well, you bring  your attorney, and we won't talk to you.'"   So if you don't want your tea party to be held in awkward silence, make sure your lawyer isn't there, there's a good chap.   > It's very sad all those people died, especially the kids, but that's going > to happen in a free society whenever psychologically needy people hook up > with a charismatic nutcase.  What a repulsive outlook on society.  "Followers of unusual religions may be killed by the government -- it simply can't be helped in a free society."  You and I have two different concepts of "free." --