Modern Militia Movement

The modern militia movement took off in the mid-1990s, with the first large militias appearing in 1994 and growth continuing over the next several years. The movement reflected widespread anger over what was seen as the meddling of a relatively liberal administration in Washington—from gun control to environmental laws to a variety of other federal mandates. But what really ignited the movement was the bloodshed in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas. In 1992, during a standoff between white supremacist Randy Weaver's family in Idaho and federal agents—a confrontation that began with Weaver's sale of an illegal weapon—Weaver's son and wife were killed, along with a U.S. marshal. The following year, some 80 members of the gun-loving Branch Davidian
With more than 200 active anti-government militia groups. White supremacist movements, though not experiencing the same increase in size, have demonstrated greatly increased levels of agitation, including calls for violence.
Over the past year, right-wing extremists made headlines through violent acts and plots, including a fatal shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., the deadly ambush of three police officers in Pittsburgh, and the gunning down of a physician in his own church in Kansas, among others. The arrest of nine members of the anti-government Hutaree Militia, accused of a plot to kill law enforcement officers and their families to create a confrontation with the government that would spark a broader uprising, was just the most recent example of an extremist militia group making
And the fact that the president is Obama who is african american it has injected a strong racial element into even those parts of the radical right, like the militias, that in the past were not primarily motivated by race hate. Contributing to the racial animus have been fears on the far right about the consequences of Latino immigration. Militia rhetoric is being heard widely once more, often from a second generation of ideologues, and conspiracy theories are being energetically revived or invented anew. "Paper terrorism"—the use of property liens, bogus legal documents and "citizen's' grand juries" to attack enemies and, sometimes, reap illegal fortunes—is again proliferating, to the point where the government has set up special efforts to rein in so-called "tax defiers" and to track threats against judges. What's more, patriot fears about the government are being amplified by a loud new group of ostensibly mainstream media commentators and