Lest you think this is an exaggeration, I assure you it isn’t: the BATF is a rogue agency run by rogues and the sort of people who, when confronted with their crimes, plead that they “were only following orders.”  The BATF employs thugs like Lon Horiuchi, hooligans who are perfectly happy to commit cold-blooded murder provided they are given the go-ahead from Higher Command. Mr Horiuchi's particular variety of mayhem was to shoot down an unarmed woman with a baby in her arms, from 200 yards away and then to claim that it was in "self defense" and "in accordance with the rules of engagement" in effect at Ruby Ridge.

The SS-like behavior of the BATF goes back decades and they have been confronted with their misdeeds more than once. A famous case was the maiming of Mr Kenyon Ballew by BATF thugs who broke into his apartment on a bogus charge. The case of the late Mrs Vicki Weaver, referred to above, came about after her husband—who was later acquitted of all charges—was accused of violating the National Firearms Act. Incidentally, Mr Weaver not only lost his wife; his 14-year-old son and his dog were also murdered in cold blood by the BATF sniper teams.

Then there is the mass murder at Waco, the most outrageous and flagrant abuse of power by the BATF and the FBI, at the orders of Bill Clinton's administration, personified by Janet Reno. The final assault and fire ignited by the assault left 87 charred corpses in the Branch Davidian compound—of whom 20 were children, at least a dozen under 12 years of age—whom even Bill Clinton could hardly have regarded as a credible threat to the safety and peace of the Republic.

Many, many other innocent people have suffered at the hands of the BATF's "jackbooted thugs" in varying degrees.  "Jackbooted thugs" is putting it mildly: these are the sort of monsters who deliberately used tear gas and tanks against a wooden building when they knew there were children inside. They are the same sort of people who herded Jewish children into boxcars and sent them to the ovens. Janet Reno escaped justice by dying some years after the masacre; Bill Clinton, who bears ultimate responsibility for this mass murder, has never been called to account for it.