THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

RESPECTABLE CONSERVATIVES READ THE SCRIPT EXACTLY THE WAY THE LIBERALS WRITE IT | 1999-09-11

It turns out that the FBI did indeed use "pyrotechnic devices" at Waco.

The Attorney General, she don't know nuthin.'

That term is a mouthful -- "pyrotechnic devices." But everybody is very, very careful to use it. Nobody says "incendiary devices."

An incendiary device is a weapon. It is used for the specific purpose of starting fires. A pyrotechnic device is something which CAN cause a fire, though that is not its primary purpose. Now that it has finally been discovered that pyrotechnic devices were used at Waco, the press has bent over backwards to make this distinction clear.

No respectable conservative has failed to use the term "pyrotechnic devices" instead of "incendiary device." Nobody has any trouble making these distinctions when the liberals want them made.

But liberals and respectable conservatives freely use the term "assault weapons" in reference to semiautomatic rifles being banned by liberals. There has not been a semiautomatic assault weapon in decades. The guns being outlawed by liberals are not assault weapons, because they are not automatics. There is, in fact, no real difference between the guns liberals are outlawing and any other routine civilian weapon. But that is too complicated a point for respectable conservatives to make.

"Assault weapon" is not a complicated term. The difference between an automatic weapon and a semiautomatic weapon is not complicated. But the distinction is NEVER made.

But the far more complicated term, "pyrotechnic devices," is ALWAYS carefully used.

If liberals want a distinction made, it gets made. Respectable conservatives only care about what liberals want. If I were in on the public debates over Waco, I would have refused to make any distinction between incendiary device and pyrotechnic devices until the liberals learn words like "automatic" and "semiautomatic." But as long as respectable conservatives pretend to be the opposition, don't hold your breath.