Paramilitary Extremism

Militia groups consider themselves part of a patriot movement in the United States and envision themselves as citizen activists. According to one militia founder, "Those who will rescue the Constitution are an underground army of men who have semiautomatics cached in barrels in the woods . . . men whom society now views as 'outcast,' 'strange' or 'erratic primitives'" (Weiss, 1995, p. 49). Some extremists, incensed at what they consider treason by the U.S. government, renounce their citizenship and rescind their drivers' licenses, Social Security cards, birth certificates, hunting licenses, and automobile license plates. (Suspected Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was stopped by the police because the car he drove had no license plates.)

Militia group members tend to be fundamentalists, adhering to a literal interpretation of the Constitution. They regard their right to bear arms and their right to privacy as sacred. Government intrusion into their lives is deeply resented. Government corruption i

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ithout warning, used government tanks to deliberately start the fire that engulfed the compound, and used the same tanks to destroy evidence. Paranoia about the federal government and a belief in government conspiracy theories are at the heart of militia group activity. Extremists interpret the "new world order" as a major conspiracy involving the takeover of the United States by the United Nations. Foreign troops are supposedly training on American soil and spying on key citizens using black helicopters. The federal government is in the process of building concentration camps (as part of the Endangered Species Act) to restrain citizen activists who resist the forthcoming imposition of martial law. The elaborate conspiracy theory involves Los Angeles street gangs as enforcers, microchips and barcodes implanted in American citizens, and road signs containing secret directions for foreign invaders (U.S. News, 1995, pp. 38-39). One militia newsletter claims that the government's plan to partition the lower 48 states into military zones was recently illustrated on boxes of Kix cereal (Weiss, 1995, p. 49). Fringe extremist groups regard the Oklahoma City federal building bombing as a plot by federal agents to implicate the mili
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Approximate Word count = 2156
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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