Bundy Ranch not Ruby Ridge

Rancher Cliven Bundy’s decades-long fight with the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been garnering a lot of attention in recent weeks due to the recent involvement of militia groups who took up arms against the federal government earlier this month. The situation is fairly simple: Bundy owes the government grazing fees, but doesn’t want to pay, so he gathers armed anti-government supporters to prevent his cattle from being rounded up and auctioned off to cover his unpaid fees. Some call him a patriot and a hero for standing up to “the Man”, with reporters comparing the situation to Ruby Ridge, but Bundy is nothing more than a common thief and the government would be in the right if force were used in this case.
Here are the facts of the case. The BLM was only rounding up his cattle because he owes the federal government over $1 million in fees that he has refused to pay for the past 20 years. Bundy claims that he doesn’t recognize federal authority on the land and that his family has used the land for grazing since his family homesteaded the ranch in 1877. This is why he hasn’t paid the fees since 1993, despite the Nevada constitution providing the federal government with the “right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within said territory.” In 1998, a federal judge heard the case and issued a permanent injunction against Bundy, ordering him to remove his cattle from the federal lands. He then lost his appeal to the San Francisco 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Then, earlier this month, the BLM began gathering his cattle. This is when anti-government forces began rolling into town with rifles and “Don’t Tread on Me” flags. Though Bundy’s son was tasered, after assaulting a police dog and resisting arrest mind you, tensions didn’t really boil over, but only because the BLM caved to pressure and released the cattle.
It is disgraceful to the Weaver family, the victims of the Ruby Ridge incident, to compare this situation to that one. The facts of that case are as follows. Federal agents entrap Randy Weaver. Law enforcement personnel make clerical errors and wrongfully issue a warrant for his arrest. Camouflaged with M16 rifles, US Marshalls set up an ambush for Weaver, shoot his dog for no reason, and then shoot his son Sammy after Sammy fires at the intruders. Then law enforcement officials tell snipers to “shoot on sight”, which leads to Weaver’s wife Vicki being killed by accident when snipers shoot at a fleeing Weaver who was not posing a threat. Bundy is a deadbeat, while Weaver is a victim of an unconstitutional use of force by the government.
Every law abiding citizen is required to pay the same grazing fees, so it is only fair that the BLM round up Bundy’s cattle and sell them. He thinks that guns make him immune to the rules, which is why the BLM shouldn’t have backed off. Not to be cliché, but we shouldn’t negotiate with terrorists, and I actually agreed with Harry Reid for once when he called Bundy’s gun-toting friends “nothing more than domestic terrorists.” If you don’t believe me, just read this statement made by Bundy after he lost his case in the 90s: “A single district court decision in one district doesn’t settle it. It’s just a single day in the year of a revolutionary war.” We have legal avenues for a reason, and if you exhaust those options then you should just accept it and be graceful in defeat. Bundy is acting like a two-year old throwing a tantrum.
As for the militias joining him, well, they shouldn’t have chosen this as their battle. It is like standing up for Al Capone because you don’t like the tax system. It is just not smart when there are other, more legitimate opportunities to play the “we have guns” card. It is true that law enforcement did act aggressively against his son, but he kicked a police dog. That being said, the police allegedly released the K9 unit on women protestors who were “refusing to disperse.” If this is true, then the government should issue an apology to Bundy and implore him to work with them to resolve the situation. Article IV’s Property Clause, coupled with Nevada’s constitution, clearly gives the federal government rights to the land. Courts have agreed on this, so Bundy needs to comply and pay the fees he owes.
Ondo is a member of
the class of 2014.