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On the last day, did the Davidians really shoot at the tanks?

One key to what happened on the day of the fire lies in claims that the Davidians shot at the FBI armored vehicles. As a general rule, AR-15s with 55 gr bullets are not considered good anti-tank rounds. Multiple hits in the same place may, however, require touch-up painting.

The FBI plan, as sold to Janet Reno, called for quite slow injections of CS "tear gas," more designed to annoy the Davidians into coming out. However, this could be changed to an all-out assault if the Davidians shot at the tanks (no reason was given for this, but they slid it past Reno).

The claim was that the Davidians began shooting early in the assault and continue throughout it. The incident commander testified that was why he out't let the fire trucks respond to the fire -- too dangerous, with the fanatic Davidians shooting.

Here's one of the aerial photos, taken late in the assault (notice how shredded the building is). Three armored vehicle are parked to the left (I inserted an enlarged area above them). It certainly looks as if one crewman has dismounted and is standing in the open, within about 50 yards of the building. That's not a shadow, the sun is high and notice how small the tank's shadows are.