Fourteen years ago today, roughly eighty people ? including seventeen small children ? burned to death at the Mt. Carmel religious retreat outside of Waco, Texas. This occurred after FBI operatives in tanks had pumped an enormous volume of CS gas into the sanctuary, and then fired incendiary rounds into the building.

The Feds kept fire and rescue teams away while the children burned to death.

The victims, commonly called the Branch Davidians, had been attacked 51 days earlier in an unnecessary armed raid by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. The supposed justification for that assault was a badly flawed warrant accusing David Koresh, the group's leader, of technical violations of federal firearms regulations.

Koresh had tried to cooperate with the ATF investigation, and could easily have been brought in for questioning. The ATF preferred an armed publicity stunt. The Davidians, under the agency's unlawful assault, didn't follow the script: They fired back in entirely justified self-defense. Thus ensued a long standoff that ended in flames.

Let us never forget the federal atrocity at Waco, and stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.