A miscalculation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms played a primary role in the tragic results at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas -- and the deadly outcome may prompt an outcry against all cults, says John Hall, a UC Davis sociologist. ATF agents stormed the cult in a way reminiscent more of a small drug bust than of a carefully negotiated approach taking into account David Koresh's followers' deeply held apocalyptic, millennial beliefs. "True believers who are armed are different from drug dealers," says Hall, author of a book on the Jonestown mass murder-suicides in Guyana. It would be unfortunate, however, for cults to be treated as scapegoats, as membership in such fundamentalist groups may be on the rise. "There's a lot of social dislocation," Hall says, citing homelessness, high unemployment and the breakdown of traditional family structures. "Signs exist that our society is fertile for apocalyptic movements. People experience their worlds crumbling," making it more plausible for them to hold fundamentalist, isolationist, apocryphal beliefs.