Date: 7 Jun 93 09:53:00-0400 According to the 7 Jun 93 US NEWS + WORLD REPORT (p. 42), the

Date: 7 Jun 93 09:53:00-0400

According to the 7 Jun 93 US NEWS & WORLD REPORT (p. 42), the "arsenal"
acquired by the Branch Davidians at Mount Carmel was comprised of the
following:
 
               59 handguns
               12 shotguns
               94 rifles
             + 45 machine guns
             -----------------
              210 firearms
 
Divided into the population of Mount Carmel as of 28 Feb 93, which was
approximately 130 persons, this comes to 1.6 firearms per individual.
 
The 1990 population of Texas was approximately 17 million.  The only
recent estimate I have seen of the total number of firearms in Texas
-!- regrettably, I cannot recall the source --- was 64 million.  I
therefore assume per capita firearms ownership in Texas to be on the
close order of 3.8, which means:
 
1. The Branch Davidians were more lightly armed, by a factor of at
   least 2, than Texas as a whole.
 
2. Any randomly selected neighborhood in any city or small town in
   Texas with a population of 130 people would contain nearly 500
   firearms of all types.
 
3. The BATF could conduct much larger (and safer) seizures by simply
   cordoning off city blocks and doing house-to-house searches.  I note
   that Ross Perot has advocated exactly this --- for black
   neighborhoods in south Dallas, that is.
 
Permission is hereby granted to copy this everywhere you can think of.

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