I briefly visited the compound a few months before the ATF raid. Though my contact was limited, it was definitely an armed compound, with rifles on the ramparts and an unwillingness to meet with strangers. They also had a history of intragroup violence, culminating with a shootout when Koresh needed to cement his leadership of the organization.
Not that the government didn’t brutally bungle the siege – heads should have rolled by the bushel in Congressional hearings – but the Branch Davidian leaders were on a literal hair trigger before the ATF raid. The tragedy is that so many innocent (or at least deluded) group members and all of the children were caught between a thuggish, militarized government and fanatical, millenarian cult leaders.
