February 13, 2017, will mark the 34th anniversary of one of the deadliest days in the history of the US Marshals Service. Every US Marshal knows the date of February 13, 1983, and even 34 years later the locals in Medina, North Dakota, still remember fresh the day their small town of barely 300 people made national news. And even today, the tensions and divisions still remain, as different views over the incident continue to this day, especially over who were the “bad guys” and who were the “good guys”.
The incident in Medina involved the attempted arrest of Gordon Kahl, a 63 year old survivalist and tax resister whose actions exposed the deep-seated distrust of the federal government that occupied the minds of like-minded individuals in the southern and western United States.
Gordon Kahl began his life as a simple man. Kahl was born on January 8, 1920, to Frederick and Edna Kahl in the tiny town of Heaton, North Dakota. Kahl was raised on a farm for most of his life. He had a single sister, Loreen, who was ten years his junior, but she died in 1937 at the age of just seven.
Kahl eventually joined the United States Air Force during World War II. He served as a turret gunner on an American bomber, and became a highly decorated war veteran. When he returned home, he settled down and became a farmer. After the war, Gordon met a woman named Joan, and they married in 1946, and settled down in Heaton, buying a 400 acre farm just outside the small town. Kahl traveled across the country, alternating jobs such as working in Texas oilfields and repairing vehicles.
During the 1970s, a farming crisis developed in the Midwest. Large companies and corporations began to buy up farmland, and this began to hurt independent farmers. It was said that every ten minutes, a farm would close down in the west. With no money, many farmers had no choice but to auction off their beloved farmland, much of which had stayed in their families for generations. Feeling betrayed, trapped, and neglected by the federal government, farmers began to organize into protest groups, demanding that the government take action to help save the farms.
At the same time, another, more sinister movement was taking shape. Unlike the farmers’ groups, this movement thrived on hatred, racism, and violence.
The American neo-Nazi movement was undergoing a resurgence, and white supremacists saw the perfect recruit in the troubled farmer. They formed racist, anti-tax organizations like the Posse Comitatus, and white-supremacist “Christian” groups like the Aryan Nations to appeal to middle-class rural farmers and conservatives.
The incident in Medina involved the attempted arrest of Gordon Kahl, a 63 year old survivalist and tax resister whose actions exposed the deep-seated distrust of the federal government that occupied the minds of like-minded individuals in the southern and western United States.
Gordon Kahl: American Farmer
Gordon Kahl began his life as a simple man. Kahl was born on January 8, 1920, to Frederick and Edna Kahl in the tiny town of Heaton, North Dakota. Kahl was raised on a farm for most of his life. He had a single sister, Loreen, who was ten years his junior, but she died in 1937 at the age of just seven.
Kahl eventually joined the United States Air Force during World War II. He served as a turret gunner on an American bomber, and became a highly decorated war veteran. When he returned home, he settled down and became a farmer. After the war, Gordon met a woman named Joan, and they married in 1946, and settled down in Heaton, buying a 400 acre farm just outside the small town. Kahl traveled across the country, alternating jobs such as working in Texas oilfields and repairing vehicles.
Radicalization: The Farmer's Crisis of the 1970s and the Rise of the Posse Comitatus
During the 1970s, a farming crisis developed in the Midwest. Large companies and corporations began to buy up farmland, and this began to hurt independent farmers. It was said that every ten minutes, a farm would close down in the west. With no money, many farmers had no choice but to auction off their beloved farmland, much of which had stayed in their families for generations. Feeling betrayed, trapped, and neglected by the federal government, farmers began to organize into protest groups, demanding that the government take action to help save the farms.
At the same time, another, more sinister movement was taking shape. Unlike the farmers’ groups, this movement thrived on hatred, racism, and violence.
The American neo-Nazi movement was undergoing a resurgence, and white supremacists saw the perfect recruit in the troubled farmer. They formed racist, anti-tax organizations like the Posse Comitatus, and white-supremacist “Christian” groups like the Aryan Nations to appeal to middle-class rural farmers and conservatives.
Many frustrated farmers were seeking an excuse, a scapegoat to blame for the loss of their businesses and their homes. These white supremacist groups offered a reason: The federal government was dominated by elite power-brokers, who were behind an evil conspiracy to destroy the white race.
These groups claimed that the a cabal of Jews were working around the clock to destroy the private farm business. This Jewish cabal was manipulating insurance companies, raising taxes, and buying up farmland to destroy the traditional western family and thereby institute a one-world government that would completely eradicate the white race and Christianity.
This message of hate appealed to many farmers. Thousands of conservatives who distrusted the federal government flocked to these movements. The Posse Comitatus’ membership skyrocketed in the early 1980s. Racist preachers, like James Wickstrom, August Kreis, and Richard Butler, gave seminars across the Midwest at county meetings, barbecues, and farmer rallies. They sold and distributed thousands of leaflets, books, and tracts spreading the hateful message of neo-Nazism and white supremacy. This ideology resonated with many farmers, who joined the cause.
One of these farmers was Gordon Kahl. For most of his life, Kahl had harbored a disliking for the government. Kahl had always hated taxes, and had been in trouble with the IRS for decades. In 1967, Kahl wrote a letter to the IRS in which he stated that he would no longer pay taxes to “communists” or “the synagogue of Satan”. In the 1970s, Kahl joined the Posse Comitatus, and became radicalized with their message of fanatical hatred. In Texas, Kahl organized a state chapter of the Posse Comitatus, and in 1976 appeared on a Texas TV show claiming that the income tax was “illegal”.
That same year, the FBI issued an arrest warrant for Kahl for failure to pay income taxes. Kahl was arrested for refusing to pay his income tax and was sentenced to two years in prison and fined $2,000. Kahl was released on parole after serving 8 months, but by now Kahl had festered a deep hatred for law enforcement and the federal government. Although he left the Posse Comitatus, Kahl retained their racist and anti-government ideology, and became extremely active in the “township movement”, an anti-government movement whose adherents claimed that they were exempt from taxation as “sovereign citizens”.
Boiling Point: The Shootout in Medina
It all came to a close on February 13, 1983.
On that day, Gordon Kahl went with his wife, Joan, his son Yorie, and his friends Scott Faul, David Broer, and Vernon Wegener to the tiny town of Medina, North Dakota, to attend an anti-tax meeting at a local health clinic.
Medina is a very small, isolated, rural town in North Dakota. With a population of 308, it is very tight-knit, and everyone knows each other. In 1983, the Medina Police Department consisted of less than ten officers, none of whom had ever fired a weapon in the course of their career. One of the officers in Medina was Steven Schnabel, a colonel in the department and an officer who would later become a key figure in the Gordon Kahl story.
After the meeting, the Kahl party departed in a two-car caravan. Gordon Kahl drove in an AMC Hornet with friend David Broer, while the rest of the Kahl party followed behind him in a station wagon.
Unknown to the Kahls, the US Marshals Service had set up a roadblock on a highway just north of Medina, and had set up surveillance on Kahl and his party as they drove north. Assisting the marshals were several officers from the Medina Police Department. The US Marshals Service had another arrest warrant for Kahl, this time for parole violation. It was decided that the arrest attempt would take place in Medina that day.
The arrest team included US Marshals Jim Hopson, Carl Wigglesworth, Kenneth Muir, and Robert Cheshire. Assisting the lawmen that day were Medina Police officers Darrell Graf, Steven Schnabel, and Bradley Kapp. Marshal Kenneth Muir was the commander of the arrest team.
Muir was an experienced veteran of the marshal service and a role model for many young marshal recruits. Muir had been among the marshals who escorted black student James Meredith to the University of Mississippi in September 1962, during the height of segregation. Muir had taken part in the deadly riot and gunfight that took place at the university when a mob of segregationists pelted the marshals with bricks, bottles, and gunfire. Muir’s actions that day earned him the respect of many, and even commendations from then-president John F. Kennedy, who wrote Muir a letter commending his bravery.
Muir knew that Kahl was a dangerous individual. Earlier, Kahl had vowed never to be taken alive if the government came to arrest him again. Nevertheless, Muir thought that a show of force would be enough to make Kahl back down and surrender.
Muir, Wigglesworth, and Schnabel drove south towards Medina in two cars, while Cheshire, Hopson, and Kapp tailed the Kahls as they drove north. The plan was to trap Kahl on the highway from the North and South, and then arrest him.
On the highway, the Kahl party abruptly took a wrong turn off of the highway. As Kahl attempted to back up, Cheshire, driving a RamCharger, blocked Kahl’s escape. Muir, Wigglesworth, and Schnabel approached from behind, and it was then that the arrest attempt was made.
Cheshire emerged from the Charger armed with an AR-15 rifle, and took cover behind the driver’s door. Kapp took cover behind the passenger door, armed with an Ithaca shotgun, and Hopson Took cover by the back of the charger, also armed with a shotgun. Cheshire aimed the rifle directly at Kahl, and yelled “US Marshals! Put your hands up or we’ll blow your fucking heads off!”.
From the north, Muir exited his car and took cover behind the driver’s door, aiming a .38 revolver towards Kahl. Wigglesworth, armed with an AR-15 rifle, emerged and approached the Kahls as Steve Schnabel, armed with a shotgun, took cover behind his own vehicle.
Gordon Kahl, Yorie Kahl, and Scott Faul emerged from their vehicles, armed with Ruger Mini-14 rifles. Kahl took cover behind his AMC Hornet as Yorie moved to the side of the road, taking cover behind a telephone pole. Cheshire followed Yorie with his rifle, and yelled more threats.
Scott Faul ran from the road towards a set of trees, seeking better cover. Wigglesworth pursued him and tried to cut him off, but he became stuck in a wet bog. Wigglesworth aimed his rifle at Faul and yelled “US Marshals! Come back to the highway with your hands up!”. Faul did not comply, and took cover behind a tree with his own rifle.
Gordon Kahl, aiming his rifle at Cheshire, ordered the marshals to back off. He then asked “What do you want?”. “All we want is you”, replied Cheshire. “Put the guns down. We don’t have to do this.”
The standoff continued for a few more tense moments. Then, abruptly, a rifle shot exploded and shattered the tense silence.
Yorie Kahl, standing behind a telephone pole, had fired a single .223 bullet from his rifle directly at Marshal Cheshire. The shot ripped through Cheshire’s chest and into his heart. The wound was fatal. If Cheshire didn’t get treatment in minutes, he would die. Cheshire managed to grab the radio and yelled “Officer hit! Officer hit! Let’s go guys, I’m hit, bad!”
Kapp, who had his shotgun trained on Gordon, swung his aim to Yorie. Yorie stepped out from behind the pole, and fired a second shot at Kapp.
The shot whizzed by Kapp’s ear. Without hesitation, Kapp aimed and fired one shell from his shotgun at Yorie. The shot missed. Kapp pumped the shotgun and ejected the spent shell. He fired a second time, and this time, the shot struck Yorie in the stomach, knocking him to the ground. In quick succession, Kapp fired two more times at Yorie, striking him in the chest and face.
With Yorie down, Kapp turned back to face Gordon Kahl. Before Kapp could react, Gordon fired a single shot through the windshield of the RamCharger, shattering the glass. Fragments of glass and metal showered Kapp, and made a deep cut in his forehead. Gordon fired at least three more shots through the windshield as Kapp fell behind the door. The bullets pinged off the door and struck Kapp’s sternum, shattering his body armor.
Cheshire, fatally wounded but still conscious, struggled to shoulder his AR-15. He managed to fire off three rounds at Kahl, but missed every shot, and Kahl returned the fire, shooting rounds directly at the driver’s door and forcing Cheshire back below the windshield. Scott Faul, taking cover in the woods, fired seven rounds at the RamCharger. One of Faul’s rounds hit Cheshire again. Another shot struck the asphalt, sending fragments of pavement into the air, which struck Marshal Hopson in the ear and left him with permanent brain damage. More shots shattered the glass of the Charger, and bounced around the inside of the vehicle.
The wounded Kapp, with blood now running into his eye from his forehead, staggered to the side of the road. There, he discovered that his index finger had been blown off by one of Faul’s shots. Out of ammunition, Kapp could not reload or fire his shotgun due to the wound in his hand.
With Kapp down, Gordon turned north to face Muir and Schnabel.
Muir, armed with his .38 revolver, had taken aim and fired a single shot at Yorie, who was struggling off the ground. Muir, a true marksman, scored a direct hit. The shot hit Yorie square in the chest, and shattered the ivory handle of a revolver Yorie wore on a shoulder holster. Were it not for the holstered revolver, Muir’s shot would have hit Yorie in the heart.
Before Muir could fire another shot, Gordon turned and fired a single rifle round at Muir. The shot hit Muir in the heart, killing the marshal instantly.
Schnabel raised his head above his own car, trying to get a clear shot at Kahl, but Kahl spotted Schnabel and fired three or four more rounds at the officer as he tried to aim his shotgun. One of the bullets ricocheted, and struck Schnabel in the back of the leg. Schnabel hobbled to the side of the road, and took cover in a ditch.
The gun battle was over, having lasted around 20-30 seconds. After Schnabel went down, there was an eerie silence.
Gordon Kahl stepped cautiously out into the road, surveying the scene. He walked slowly towards the RamCharger, where Cheshire, Hopson, and Kapp all lay wounded. Seeing Gordon Kahl approach, Kapp decided to run. He jumped up, his face and hand covered with blood, and sprinted south down the highway, zigzagging as he ran back towards Medina. Gordon raised his rifle, but ultimately did not shoot the fleeing Kapp.
Instead, Kahl walked over to the driver’s side of the RamCharger, and confronted Cheshire. Cheshire had been fatally wounded by two bullets, but he was barely conscious and struggling to climb back into his vehicle. Kahl hesitated, then took aim at the dying marshal’s head. He fired a single round into Cheshire’s forehead. Cheshire’s head literally exploded, tearing off the top of his skull and spraying blood and bone fragments into the air. Kahl fired a second round into Cheshire’s neck, and the dead marshal’s body fell to the ground.
Kahl then turned and walked north, where he saw the body of the lifeless Ken Muir lying beside his car, killed by a shot to the chest. He then approached Schnabel, who lay wounded on the side of the road. Upon seeing Kahl, Schnabel raised his hands, and pleaded for his life, saying “Don’t shoot. I quit.”
“Give me your gun”, said Kahl. Schnabel handed Kahl his shotgun and revolver, and Kahl walked away. He got into Schnabel’s police vehicle, and drove south back to Medina, followed by the station wagon and AMC Hornet.
After leaving Yorie at the Medina health clinic, Gordon drove off in Schnabel’s police car, and disappeared. Schnabel’s vehicle was later found abandoned outside of Medina, but Gordon Kahl was nowhere to be found.
Manhunt: The Search for and Idolization of Gordon Kahl
A massive manhunt for Kahl would be organized. US Marshals, FBI agents, local and state police forces, and National Guardsmen spread out to search an area encompassing three American states and two Canadian provinces. Several days after the Medina shootout, FBI agents and local police surrounded Gordon Kahl’s farmhouse in Heaton, North Dakota, with armored personnel carriers and SWAT teams. It is still unclear what happened next, but apparently a law officer fired shots into the farmhouse, inadvertently killing Kahl’s dog. These shots apparently provoked a barrage of gunfire from the FBI agents, who riddled the farmhouse with bullets. Afterwards, dozens of concussion grenades were fired into the home, and the farmhouse was completely saturated with tear gas.
When a fully-armed SWAT team burst into the farmhouse, they found dozens of weapons and Posse Comitatus literature, but no sign of their fugitive. Gordon Kahl was wanted for murder, believed to be heavily armed, and still one step ahead of the police.
The story of Gordon Kahl was now making national news. While most people were appalled by the murder of the two US Marshals, others, particularly in anti-government circles, revered Kahl as a sort of folk hero. Like Claude Dallas, the Idaho cowboy who evaded a police manhunt for over a year, Kahl became a popular figure among the anti-government right. Across the rural midwest, people began wearing T-shirts bearing messages such as “Go, Gordie! Go!”. Country songs about Kahl were written, and praised him as a loyal, conservative farmer who stood up to the IRS and the federal government.
While it is still unclear whether Kahl received any assistance or shelter from sympathizers during the police manhunt, there is no doubt that, to some, Kahl represented the image of resistance and defiance to the federal government, and was, in the eyes of many, an “Old West” folk hero alongside the likes of Davy Crockett, Paul Bunyan, and Billy the Kid.
Endgame: The Smithville Shootout and the Death of Gordon Kahl
The manhunt dragged on for four months, until finally the FBI got a tip from an unnamed source, who told the lawmen that Kahl was hiding in a farmhouse in rural Smithville, Arkansas, owned by Leonard and Norma Ginter.
On June 4, 1983, a posse of FBI agents and Arkansas police surrounded the Ginter home. Gene Matthews, the sheriff of Lawrence County, Arkansas, believed that he would be able to convince Kahl to surrender. After all, the Posse Comitatus believed that the sheriff was the highest form of authority, and Matthews probably thought that Kahl would be more open to reasoning with a sheriff than a federal agent.
Matthews, armed with a .41 caliber revolver, cautiously stepped through the side door of the Ginter home. Close behind him were two FBI agents armed with shotguns. For a few tense moments, there was silence, and then all hell broke loose.
It is still unclear exactly what happened at this point, but according to the FBI, Matthews entered the kitchen of the Ginter home, where Gordon Kahl, armed with his Ruger Mini-14, took cover behind a fridge. As Sheriff Matthews approached the fridge, Kahl jumped out from behind the fridge, and the two men almost simultaneously fired shots at one another. Kahl fired at least one round from his Mini-14. This round struck Matthews underneath his raised arm, and tore through his armpit into his heart. At the same time, Matthews fired one round from his .41 caliber revolver at Kahl. Matthews’ shot hit Kahl in the head, probably killing him instantly. As Mathews stumbled backwards, an FBI agent, hearing the gunfire, fired one shotgun round towards the kitchen, striking Matthews in the torso with buckshot. A second agent fired four shotgun rounds through the window of the Ginter home towards where he thought Kahl was standing.
Matthews stumbled out of the house, bleeding heavily from his wound, and into the arms of the agents. He managed to groan “I’m hit, but I think I got him. I think he’s dead”.
After the short exchange of gunfire, the rest of the SWAT team opened fire on the house. Agents with assault rifles and even an M60 machine gun began riddling the house with thousands of bullets. An agent climbed onto the house’s roof and poured diesel fuel down the chimney, and within minutes the house was engulfed in flames. Ammunition rounds stored in the house began to explode from the intense heat, preventing anyone from going near the burning building. The fire burned for hours into the night. As the agents watched the house being gutted by flames and bullets, they received more sad news: Sheriff Matthews had died from his wounds. Kahl’s shot had torn through his heart, and he had bled to death before doctors could save him.
The following morning, FBI agents combed through the smoldering wreckage of the Ginter home. Inside what used to be the house’s kitchen, agents found the badly burned remains of Gordon Kahl, face-down on the floor. Kahl had been charred beyond recognition, with both of his legs apparently burned off in the blaze. His glasses were warped and melted into what remained of his head and face, and next to him was the burned skeleton of his rifle.
Examining the body, police found evidence of single gunshot wound to the head. Matthews was right: He, or at least someone, had killed Gordon Kahl. The manhunt, which had lasted four months and cost the lives of four people and changed the lives of many more, was finally over.
Norma and Leonard Ginter were charged with harboring a fugitive and the murder of Sheriff Matthews. The charge of murder was later dropped, but Leonard Ginter was sentenced to eight years in prison for harboring Kahl. Norma was acquitted.
Gordon Kahl’s son, Yorie Kahl, and Scott Faul were later convicted of murder for their role in the shooting, and are serving life sentences in federal prison. Their earliest projected date of release is in February 2023.
After an autopsy, the remains of Gordon Kahl were returned to North Dakota, where a small funeral service was held in his hometown of Heaton. Yorie was not allowed to attend the funeral of his father, who lies buried in a small grave in Heaton.
The Aftermath: Altered Lives and Deep Divisions
To this day, debate remains over who was at fault for the tragedy at Medina, and whether the use of force was justified. Criticism has been laid on the marshals for using aggressive arrest tactics, and escalating the situation into violence. In fact, soon after the shootout, Schnabel and Chief Darrell Graf were fired from the Medina Police Department for reasons that have still not been revealed to either of them. The firing came soon after Schnabel and Graf publicly criticized the US Marshals for their handling of the situation in Medina, and the news media for inaccurate reporting of the story.
In 2016, I purchased a book written by Schnabel and Darrell Graf about the Kahl incident, It’s All About Power. In the book, Schnabel criticizes the US Marshals for underestimating Kahl, and using aggressive tactics in the arrest attempt in Medina, and also states that the Marshals did not seem to have a clear arrest plan. Schnabel also places blame on the US Marshals for the loss of his job, and believes that his firing may have been orchestrated by the US Marshals Service to silence his dissent against the “official story” of the Kahl incident.
Who Fired First?
I managed to contact Steve Schnabel over email in November of 2016. In my series of emails exchanged with him, I confronted him about conflicting stories regarding the Kahl incident.
One of which was the number of rounds fired during the Medina shootout, and when and by whom they were fired. In another book written about the Kahl incident, Bitter Harvest, the author claims that US Marshal Robert Cheshire had managed to fire three rounds during the Medina gunfight. This is important in considering who fired first that day in Medina. I knew from reading Schnabel’s book, It’s All About Power, that the first shot fired that day was a rifle shot.
Five people at Medina that day carried rifles: Robert Cheshire, Carl Wigglesworth, Gordon Kahl, Yorie Kahl, and Scott Faul. Wigglesworth could not have fired his weapon, as he was stuck in a bog during the shootout. That means that, if the Marshals shot first, only Cheshire could have fired first. I tried to look for other sources to support the claim made in Bitter Harvest about Cheshire’s shots fired that day, but I could find no other source that specifically stated that Cheshire fired any rounds in Medina. Only one other book, The Terrorist Next Door, even alluded to Cheshire firing any rounds, as it states that the US Marshals fired a total of eight rounds that day.
As Steve Schnabel was present during the Medina firefight, I wondered if he could verify whether Cheshire fired any shots that day. If Cheshire had, in fact, fired shots, it could help in establishing who fired the first round at Medina.
I asked Steve Schnabel whether he had seen Cheshire fire any rounds during the shootout. Schnabel said he couldn’t see Cheshire from his vantage point during the gunfight, but that he knew that Cheshire was the first one hit, and that Cheshire had been shot by Yorie Kahl.
However, Schnabel did say that he thought that the claim made by the author of Bitter Harvest was correct, and that Cheshire had in fact fired his weapon at Medina, although he didn’t believe Cheshire’s shots hit anyone. Schnabel also said he did not believe that Cheshire fired first, and instead claimed, as most analysts claim, that Yorie Kahl shot first.
Schnabel offered to show me transcripts from the Kahl trial to elaborate on the sequence of events that occurred that day. As of the time of this writing, I have still not received the documents, but based on testimony from eyewitnesses and information from books on the incident, I can conclude that the marshals were most likely not the ones who shot first.
Censorship, Blame, and Tragedy: The Mistakes of the Government in Dealing with Gordon Kahl
Another source of dispute is the US Marshal’s arrest plan (or lack thereof), and the historical accuracy of the government’s “official story” regarding the Medina incident.
During my discussion with Schnabel, he reiterated his claim that the US Marshals had orchestrated his firing after he had criticized the accuracy of the media reports and the “government-sanctioned” version of events regarding Gordon Kahl. He further stated: “I was appalled after reading stories in the newspapers that were totally fabricated--not even close to the truth--but were printed as being the truth. And we were given an eye opening when the US Marshals had a party for a college educated author of another book that was published by a big publishing house after his book came out. That alone should tell you something.”
And indeed it does seem to support, or at least give credence to, Schnabel’s claims. The federal government has not been keen to criticize or lay blame on its operatives if a situation goes awry, even if the actions of said operatives contributed to a tragedy like the Medina shootout.
After the Kahl incident, the US Marshals Service altered its tactics, specifically to focus more on de-escalating a situation rather than escalating it. However, the US Marshals Service has apparently never publicly accepted their role in escalating the Medina situation, and instead puts most of the blame on Gordon Kahl, portraying him as a sort of maniacal, unstable, hate-filled killer. They paint him as a kind of psychopath, a powder keg waiting to go off, who murdered the two lawmen in cold blood without any apparent provocation.
The Marshals seem to ignore the role that the economic downturn and the farmer’s crisis had on creating the anti-government sentiment that turned Kahl from a docile farmer into a cop killer. They seem to gloss over the fact that the US Marshals did not seem to have any real arrest plan or any idea of how to deal with a person like Kahl, whose hatred for the government had reached a boiling point after years of imprisonment, fines, and harassment. And when people like Schnabel tried to bring these facts to light, and point out that the government had, at least in part, some blame for what happened at Medina, the government was more quick to silence them than to take responsibility.
The Deadly, Unending Cycle: What We Can Do to Avoid Another Tragedy
Unfortunately, this sort of thing happens too often. Too many times, we have seen that underestimation of subject by law enforcement has led to tragedy, and then when the government fails to accept responsibility, anti-government sentiment takes a foothold. This happened in Ruby Ridge in 1992, when US Marshals, in an attempt to arrest Randy Weaver, mistakenly thought that a “show of force” would get Weaver to surrender. Instead, the incident ended with the deaths of a US Marshal and Weaver’s wife, son, and dog.
This happened again in Waco, Texas, in 1993, when ATF agents attempted to raid the compound of the Branch Davidian cult in search of illegal weapons. The ATF mistakenly believed a brash “kick-in-the-door”-type raid would scare the Davidians into submission. Instead, the raid turned into a disaster, and a two-hour gunfight left four agents and seven Davidians dead. The FBI made the same mistake later, laying siege to the compound and putting intense pressure on the Davidians to force them to surrender. Instead, the siege culminated in a fiery mass suicide, killing 76 Davidians, including dozens of children. Yet again, the government failed to accept responsibility for their mistakes, and yet again anti-government sentiment spread like a wildfire throughout the country. This is a dangerous cycle that will continue, and unless this changes, more people like Gordon Kahl will be drawn into radical movements and endanger their own lives and the lives of others.
In short, the Gordon Kahl incident is just one of many incidents that exposed the deep-seated mistrust and hatred of the federal government held by many in the United States. Law enforcement needs to change their methods of dealing with criminals and individuals.
For the sake of American unity, and for the sake of security, the government needs to change the way it deals with people like Kahl.
People like Kahl cannot be controlled by means of intimidation or harassment. And people like Steve Schnabel should not be silenced for criticizing the actions of government operatives.
Everyone, even the government, should be open to criticism. Silencing it will only create enemies, and feed into the distrust and hatred of the government shared by many who are disillusioned with federal authority.
Unless we learn from incidents like the tragedy that happened in Medina 34 year ago, people like Kahl will continue to be drawn into radical anti-government movements, and more people will die in this vicious, unending cycle.
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