NCJ Number
166392
Date Published
1994
Length
30 pages
Annotation
Profiles of militia organizations and their activities in 13 States are accompanied by an overview of militia activity and suggestions for appropriate responses such as legislation prohibiting paramilitary training for unlawful activities.
Abstract
Groups of armed right-wing militants that usually call themselves militias are being established across the country. They have no centralized structure, but they share propaganda material and speakers. They aim to lay the groundwork for massive resistance to the Federal Government and its law enforcement agencies as well as opposition to gun control laws. Militia ideologues regard gun control legislation as major strategies in a secret government conspiracy to disarm and control the people and abolish their constitutional right to bear arms. They regard government actions in the Branch Davidian confrontation in Waco, Tex. and the Randy Weaver siege in Idaho as a signal of impending tyranny. Militias are active in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia. Appropriate responses to these organizations include press and citizen organization monitoring of extremism, law enforcement that respects everyone's legal rights to hold and promote individual views on issues such as gun control, and paramilitary training legislation. Appended model paramilitary training statue recommended by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and list of national, regional, and overseas ADL offices