They really hurt their cause... That the Federal government is too powerful... These fuggers were a bunch of nut jobs. ill say this for the Ol man. He said your going to have to shoot me and he lived and died by that statement.
You gotta wonder if his life goal was to "die for a cause" or if he just legitimately didn't think they would shoot him. I bet if you went back to that moment and told him what was going to happen, he would have put his hands up and begged for mercy. He's a douchebag criminal and deserves what he got. It's really that simple.
I'm not certain he would have given up. I believe he did want to be a martyr. i read a different article a while back where he was, not very political until the rancher in Nevada on public lands thing. At that point to became a leader of this group. Your second point is spot on.
It's ironic that rather than spur on the "revolution" by being martyred, his death actually squashed the whole thing because the others realized they were no longer playing cops and robbers.
