Kids draw the darnedest things

EARLIER THIS YEAR, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives posted the winners of their Kid's Art Contest online at atf. gov/kids/kids_art_main.htm. The agency "requested artwork from ATF employees' children under the age of 14 that depicted what they thought their parents did at work."

Pictured above is a winning entry drawn by a 6-year-old. Ostensibly a drawing of an ATF agent investigating a church arson, the image, especially the ambiguous child-like figure on the left side, eerily calls to mind the ATF'S central role in the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidians outside Waco, Texas. That confrontation--which started with a bungled ATF raid and ended with a firestorm--was the deadliest law enforcement operation in U.S. history. When it was over, 86 people (including nearly two dozen children) were dead.

According to the ATF, this drawing will be part of "a permanent kids' art wall exhibit decorating the new ATF headquarters building in Washington, D.C." One hopes also it will serve as a daily reminder to ATF agents to learn from the past and not to repeat their mistakes.

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