Chris Jennings

Yeah, they had a very specific vision going all the way back to their days in Iowa to the early 80s that something specific was going to happen to their family.

It was going to take the form of a siege.

They would be under assault.

And they would have to defend themselves.

Five years before the actual siege did come to their land, they even filed an affidavit with the Boundary County Sheriff's Office or the local courthouse saying, you know, we fear that our land will be raided.

We will be forced to kill a federal agent and in defending ourselves, all be killed, which is, you know, shockingly dangerous.

accurate prophecy of what was to come five years later, either a testament to the way prophecy can fulfill itself or to the fact that Vicki was prophetically gifted, which is not my interpretation of things.

Yeah, you know, like a lot of Americans, Randy sort of conceived of guns as like this fourth branch of government.

You know, they were his ultimate check and balance on the power of the state.

And he clearly just also enjoyed weapons.

He's always had them around.

But one of the things that alarmed a lot of their neighbors, which in turn helped aggravate things during the siege, is the little kids always walking around armed.

kind of gave people the creeps.

And again, these people are residents of rural far northern Idaho.

They're all people who own guns themselves and are comfortable around guns.

But there was something about the Weaver's constant target practice, constant brandishing of weapons that even gave those people pause.

Well, the actual charge was for selling two sawed-off shotguns to an ATF informant.

And it's my view, and this is much contested by all parties, but after looking closely, it's my view that really the government wasn't initially trying to –

Get Weaver on the hook for selling the guns.

They weren't trying at the outset to make him an informant.