What was Timothy McVeigh did constitutional?

Question

I don't know about Constitutional, but I understand his distrust of the government. He didn't want to kill those kids in the building, and he later wrote that killing the kids was his only regret. He watched as the FBI invaded the Davdian headquarters and killed many religious people in Waco, and he was angered, as I was about how the US Marshalls investigated an innocent man named Randy Weaver and assaulted his house, killing his son, wife, and dog. The government has gone too far with many inncent people who they think are dangerous just because they don't trust the government. Mind, I am not thinking about blowing up buildings.

I am not saying blowing up buildings was the solution, but I was doing research into what people thought.

Answer 1

Blowing up things and killing people is wrong. Period. I am appalled by government abuse, but our solution cannot be seen as homegrown terrorism, of the McVeigh variety. Hopefully, our laws rein in loose cannons and inept Barney Fife federal agents. Punish the individual who does wrong in our courts, by due process, NOT a bunch of innocent passersby who happen to be at work or school one day, and get hit for no reason.

Answer 2

Ok. There is a difference between someone distrusting the government and those like timothy mcveigh and randy weaver .

McVeigh was looney and had an obsession with the book The Turner Diaries, by William L. Pierce - A story about a disgruntled racist, anti-semetic who uses a fertilizer and fuel oil bomb to blow up thr Federal Building. He was in the US army and served in Desert Storm, but failed to become a Green Beret, at which point he lost interest in the military. He was also a member of the NRA, but left the group because they "were not taking enough action in opposing the ban on assault weapons." He also told people previous to the bombing that the Army had planted him with a computer chip so that they could control him. All this was previous to the David Koresh/Waco standoff in 1993 and Weaver incident in August 1992. He worked Terry Nichols on the bombing plan, but Nichols even decided he was crazy, and stopped talking to McVeigh. Basically the bombing in Oaklahoma City was nearly identical to the the boming in the book he was obsessed with.

McVeigh wasn't a normal guy upset about the government, he was a crazy man looking for an excuse. Had he live a semi normal life and felt his next door neighbor wasn't treating him right, or some other group, he would have done physicall harm to them instead of the government.

After he was arrested, he referred to himself as a "prisoner of war" because he was delusional, and at the time he was willing to accept casualties for the greater cause. I am sure his children regrets only came after some time in prison.

As for Mr. Randy Weaver, he was housing an arsenel in his home, and was a known anti-semetic, racist. He was the white seperatist "posterboy." He was called in on a warrant, and refused to show, and told the police he wouldn't go out without a fight. The whole incident would have been advoided had he turned himself in. He was the type of crazy who cared only for himself. Knowing his wife and son was home, he should have gone peacefully, rather than instigate a shoot out with US Marshalls. Regardless of who's story is correct - Marshalls shooting first, Weaver shotting first there was full knowledge of how many guns were already in that house.

To sum this all up. There is a BIG difference between those who oppose the government, and those vigilanties who are willing to put innocent lives in jeopardy because of this opposition. It irradicates the point of "showing the governement that they are doing us wrong" when they are killing innocent people to get that point across.

Answer 3

You don't ever get a pass for killing innocent people to make a point. I don't care how frustrated he was with the Government what he did was atrocious. At the same time there are literally millions of people out there who get frustrated with their Government and work through proper channels to get their grievances resolved.

If he didn't want to kill the kids that were there then he shouldn't have blown up the building they were in now should he?

Answer 4

Constitutional?

Murder is rightly illegal -- not unconstitutional, as the Constitution sets out the structure, powers, and limits of government. The laws against murder are constitutional laws.

You take McVeigh at his word. Instead, I would say that he was deeply troubled, prone to violence, and his "cause" was more excuse than reason for committing his atrocity.

BTW, although the murder of children was tragic, so was the murder and maiming of adults -- none of whom were in any way responsible for the acts you site as his motivation.

If your parent, sibling, child, or best friend had been in that building that day, would you be asking whether McVeigh was a freedom-fighter?

Unfortunately, any chance of better understanding him and what went wrong (not to mention half our chance of finding out who the third guy was) died when we killed him.

Yup, we'd rather kill a guy than have a way to prevent future terror, or find out who else was involved.

What does that say about us?

Answer 5

What are you talking about? McVeigh was a cold blooded murderer. Sure, the government was out of line at the Davidian headquarters. They should have waited them out rather than going in with tanks. But that is not an excuse to take innocent life.

Answer 6

What? What he did was highly illegal, immoral, and crazy on the level of the 9/11 attacks. McVeigh was into white supremacy and violent terrorism.

Do you think killing scores of people and destroying buildings is justified when you feel angry about something the government has done?

Answer 7

If McVeigh had blown up that building at 3 am instead of hours later when he did there would be a lot of people privately wanting to give him a medal. As it was, too many people who had NOTHING to do with his grievances were killed.

Answer 8

You are still young & can't differentiate between legitimate dissent against the federal government & cold blooded murder.

Timothy McVeigh = deranged meth addicted mass murderer
Randy Weaver = deranged racist & religious zealot
David Koresh = deranged sexual pervert & religious zealot

All of the events you mentioned were tragic & I wish they never occured. But NONE of these people are worthy of praise or emulation.

Answer 9

I have found in my over 50 yrs of life that people can complain about problems or start a grassroots effort to solve them. He was a murderer with a warped mind to boot. He killed people who had kids, and people who had wives and grandkids and daughters and sister. Why on earth would anyone justify that?

Answer 10

Thanks for using Yahoo! Answers as a political platform. I'm going to answer your question. No. At no time is it constitutional to take the lives of innocent people because you don't trust their employer. I don't want to even discuss the matter further. If Mr. McVeigh had aired his grievances properly, we might be discussing it.