Militia Groups in the United States

Since the foundation of the United States, militia groups have been a constant presence. Although claiming similar motives to their revolutionary counterparts, modern militia groups have gained an unsavory public outlook due in part to the individuals, actions, and ideologies that these militias are involved with. In the United States today, militia groups can be found in all 50 states and although legal under federal statutes, they can be considered differently under state legislation. This has raised some issues about the modern militia groups. Many groups fall in a "grey area", their legality dependant on the courts perspective on the motives of the individual group. Based on this decision, courts can classify Militias as anything between simply advocacy groups or more seriously as domestic terrorist organizations. While not all American Militias seek to inflict harm, this "grey area" gives the modern American militia a bad connotation. How did something so foundationally American as a militia to defend individuals rights gain such a bad undertone in the eyes of the American public? Well, when the militia movement was reignited after the significant political reforms of the 1960s and 1970s, far right conservatives and far left liberals began to form organizations to stand in the defense of what they believed in. The political climate of the time, paired with mounting cold war tensions, meant that the citizens of the United States saw a necessity for action on hot political issues. This not only leads to farther leaning political activism among both groups but also mounting tensions between them. The groups began attracting more and more people that were considered extremists due to their heavy push for greater reform for their political camp. Crime and borderline riots were becoming commonplace at meetings of different militia groups. It wasn't until the early 1990s that this made it to the national spotlight. The Ruby Ridge incident was one in which Randy Weaver, a member of a paramilitary group with affiliations with the Aryan nation and known illegal arms dealer, and other members of his family barricaded themselves in their home and resisted arrest by federal agents for nine days until ultimately being forced to surrender after the deaths of his wife, son, and a federal agent. After the whole ordeal, Weaver was charged only with the weapons charges that he was originally being arrested for. This incident shocked the United States, exposing deeply rooted criminal organizations within far-right political movements. This event also inspired another militia-related act of violence three years later. On April 19th, 1995, Timothy McVeigh, upset with the recent U.S. politics and the Ruby Ridge Incident, detonated a car bomb near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building killing 168 people. This represented the deadliest terrorist attack that had ever been seen on American soil at the time. It truly opened the eyes of many Americans to the dangers of extremist groups within our borders. This prompted the much tighter restrictions on "militia" groups. Many Militia groups have become a foundation upon which extremists stand to further their political beliefs rather than supporting the freedoms that Americans are granted. It is for this reason that American Militias are now seen in a negative light.