Jack of Harts

The Ruby Ridge affair was an example of what the government can do if they decide to target someone. An ATF informant solicited Randy Weaver to make illegal sawed-off shotguns for him, and then the ATF arrested him for it. The Marshals put out a warrant for his arrest for not showing up to court six days before he was told to show up for court. The Marshals then killed his son. The FBI killed his wife and shot him. They shot his friend. Then they put him on trial, and a jury sentenced him to 18 months in jail for not showing up to court. Yes, the Weaver family later won a 3 million dollar settlement from the government, but the government never admitted any wrongdoing. Only one of the hundreds of government individuals involved was charged with a crime, and the charges were dismissed on grounds of sovereign immunity. The Ruby Ridge affair nearly destroyed the Weaver family, but the government agents who escalated it at every opportunity walked away without consequences.

The Ruby Ridge standoff entered its most deadly phase when US Marshals killed Randy Weaver’s son and a family friend killed a US Marshal. The US Marshals called for help, and hundreds of FBI, ATF, and US Marshals arrived by the next day to demand Weaver’s surrender. Hostage Rescue Team snipers were deployed to overlooks with orders they described as “shoot on sight” in nature. When Weaver, his daughter, and the family friend exited the house to see to his son’s body, they were waiting. An FBI sniper shot Weaver in the back, sending all three running back to the house. Weaver’s wife opened the door so they could enter the house, and as the family friend ran in, the sniper shot him in the chest. The bullet passed through him, through the door, and killed Weaver’s wife. And so the Ruby Ridge standoff entered its final stage.

The Ruby Ridge standoff truly began when the US Marshals took over a grand jury indictment on March 14 to arrest Randy Weaver for not showing up for a trial over illegal firearms charges solicited by an ATF informer on February 20, when his court-appointed lawyer told him the trial was on March 20. Weaver was reluctant to trust anyone from the government by then. A seven-month period of negotiations between the Marshals and Weaver to get him to surrender did not work. The US attorney in charge of the case told the Marshals to stop negotiating in October and demanded that negotiations go through the court-appointed lawyer. The media got wind of the standoff, and sent a helicopter to fly over Ruby Ridge in April, 1992. Reports said that Weaver fired on it. Weaver and the helicopter pilot denied the reports, but the US attorney charged Weaver with firing on the helicopter as part of an Overt Act in what he called the Weavers’ Conspiracy Against the Federal Government.