Eighteen years ago today Randy Weaver was set to appear in court over a weapons charge — he was supposedly in possession of a shotgun that was 1″ shorter than allowable per federal law as enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives. When Weaver’s court date was changed without him being made aware he obviously failed to appear, prompting the judge to issue a warrant for his arrest. The U.S. Marshals took over. Over the next year they mounted an extensive surveillance campaign of Weaver and his rustic house in Idaho. By August of the following year, after a 12-day siege overseen by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Randy’s wife Vicki, 14-yr old son Samuel, and dog were dead — killed by bullets fired by federal agents in an incident that became known as Ruby Ridge.

What had originally started with a piece of metal being 1″ too short (as defined by the government) resulted in the deaths of three people (Vicki and Samuel Weaver and U.S. Marshal William Degan), lawsuits and widespread mistrust of federal law enforcement. Even then-FBI Director Louis Freeh, when testifying about the event afterwards admitted that “law enforcement overreacted.”

But were those who “overreacted” held accountable? Were systemic changes made? No. In fact, Lon Horiuchi, the FBI sniper that killed Vicki Weaver, was protected by “sovereign immunity” and others that had been in command at Ruby Ridge were months later deployed to Waco, which too ended in tragedy and loss of innocent lives.

Fast-forward to today. There are now hundreds if not thousands of actions that are now deemed federal crimes. A massive Department of Homeland Security supported by scare-tactic-heavy PR campaigns. Wiretaps. A growing surveillance state. And over one million of us on the terrorist watch list.

This post touches on lots of factors but they all come down to one thing: That we, as individuals, should be free to act so long as we don’t initiate force against another. If we continue to stand idly by as our freedoms are usurped it’ll soon be too late. Because, as Thomas Jefferson noted, “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”

For more, check out:

• the Homeland Tyranny overview and Gun Owners for Freedom group on Bureaucrash Social
• “Ambush at Ruby Ridge” by Alan Bock published in Reason Magazine
• “ATF Under Seige” a lengthy Time article from a couple of years later that helps to set the stage
• Waco: The Rules of Engagement, a powerful documentary described by one viewer as “a devastating indictment on the ATF, FBI and the US government, roundly demonstrating their culpability in the deaths of innocent men, women and children in the most abhorrent of crimes against humanity”
• No Confidence: An Unofficial Account of the Waco Incident, a stellar policy analysis by scholar Tim Lynch, Director of the Project of Criminal Justice at the Cato Institute.
• “Overkill: The Rise of Paramility Raids in America” by Radley Balko that focuses on the “dramatic rise in the use of paramilitary police units for routine police work.”