Armed and Dangerous: Militias Take Aim in Virginia and North Carolina

Norman Olson, a regional militia commander in northern Michigan, has envisioned violence erupting if present government policies continue. Olson, a Baptist minister who owns a gun shop, declared: "We're talking about a situation where armed conflict may be inevitable if the country doesn't turn around." (Emphasis added.) Most often the central issue of the militants has been the legality of guns themselves. Clearly, their deeper suspicions and terrors should be of concern: Is their militant cause merely the alleged gun-toting "right" of citizens? -- or is it the "turning around" of the U.S. itself from what the militants see as the "treasonous" direction of the federal government's present policies? What are the policies these people see as "treason?"

Most of these people hide behind the Bible or wave flags to cover the simple fact they are religious and racial bigots. According to Kenneth Stern, author of A Force Upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate (Simon and Schuster, 1996):

Christian Patriotism teaches that the United States is the biblical promised land, promised to white/Aryan/Nordic types. It preaches that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are divinely inspired and have to be treated like Scripture. The amendments to the Constitution following the first ten, such as equality under the law, votes for blacks and women, freeing the slaves, et cetera, are seen as "man-made" and a derogation of the "original" or "organic" Constitution. Borrowing heavily from the political program of the 1970s and 1980s far-right group Posse Comitatus, Christian Patriots frequently file documents announcing that they are "sovereign citizens" with no linkage to the "corporal entity" known as the United States of America, that evil government that elects its senators directly (Seventeenth Amendment) and otherwise pays attention to those troubling post-Bill of Rights amendments. Accused Oklahoma City-bomber Terry Nichols and Militia of Montana leader John Trochmann made such "sovereign citizen" pronouncements. The Freemen group in its self-proclaimed "Just Us" township in Montana also subscribed to Christian Patriot beliefs. They were not holed up because they simply did not want to pay their taxes. For Christian Patriots, America is promised to the white race, and by opposing and severing connections to an evil government that tolerates equal rights for minorities, white Americans can reclaim their birthright.

Dean Compton, for example, is a California militia leader who said that "The Mayflower Compact was by Christians and for Christians, and when they said 'God Bless America' they didn't mean 'God Bless Gandhi.'" How different is this from Pat Robertson, who said on his "The 700 Club" program, "The Constitution of the United States... is a marvelous document for self-government by Christian people. But the minute you turn the document into the hands of non-Christians and atheistic people they can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society."

The idea that certain Americans have a greater claim on the country's traditions and rights than others becomes more attractive in a time of uncertainty, when people fear that "our" society is under attack. Both the Religious Right and the militias have grown since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Our old, comfortable "evil empire" upon which we could project our worst fears, no longer exists. For those who believe in Christian supremacy and those who believe in white supremacy, the enemy has become internal: the United States government. This shared new enemy has helped create ideological images which empowers both the Religious Right and the far right.

They give Christians in general a bad name. What is scary is the Christian Coalition and others have identical ideas but only go at it by legal means. For more on this see the following articles.

A recent episode in Virginia offers some partial but troubling evidence. Members of a militia group calling itself the Blue Ridge Hunt Club were arrested for possession of illegal weapons. The leader of the group, James Roy Mullins, and three others who were taken into custody, were found to be stockpiling weapons in their homes and storage facilities. Found on a computer disk in Mullins' home was a draft of the group's newsletter stating that it planned a series of terrorist actions in furtherance of its aims. According to an ATF official. the group intended to further arm itself by raiding the National Guard Armory in Pulaski. Virginia.

This group is 90 minutes from my house in and area that isn't plagued by crime and has few minorities. I can go to Bristol and buy a 50 caliber (converted to semi-auto) machine gun and ammo. So if it isn't guns, negros, or crime, what is their problem? This isn't about God or country, and Christians need to fight this hate in their community. See the articles below.

Virginia

On July 27, 1994, James Roy Mullins, a founding member of a militia-like group called The Blue Ridge Hunt Club, was arrested and charged with the possession and sale of a short-barreled rifle and unregistered silencers and with facilitating the unlawful purchase of a firearm. Ultimately, three other members were also charged with firearm offenses. Federal officials said that Mullins had formed the club to arm its members in preparation for war with the government. The cases are pending.

The group, formed earlier in 1994, has had as many as 15 members. They are said to have met three times before Mullins' arrest. While members of the group say that their purpose is to lobby against gun control laws, federal law enforcement officials tell a much different story. An ATF official who investigated the case said that "Mullins is organizing a group of confederates, to be armed and trained in paramilitary fashion, in preparation for armed conflict with government authorities should firearms legislation become too restrictive." Evidence of such preparation is substantial. In searches of members' homes and storage facilities, federal agents found a stockpile of weapons. In Mullins' home, agents found 13 guns, several of which had homemade silencers. They also found explosives, hand grenades, fuses and blasting caps in a separate warehouse.

Even pretrial incarceration has not stopped Mullins from threatening violence. While in jail, he wrote a letter to a friend saying that he wanted to borrow a machine gun in order to "take care of unfinished business" with certain prosecution witnesses.

The strongest indications of the group's goals was the draft of a portion of its newsletter found on a computer disk obtained by federal agents. On the disk, Mullins had written:

Hit and run tactics will be our method of fighting... We will destroy targets such as telephone relay centers, bridges, fuel storage tanks, communications towers, radio stations, airports. etc... human targets will be engaged ... when it is beneficial to the cause to eliminate particular individuals who oppose us (troops. police, political figures, snitches, etc.).

An ATF official also said that Mullins was planning to arm the group by burglarizing the National Guard Armory in Pulaski, Virginia.

North Carolina

North Carolina's militia movement has been fueled by an alarmist vision of a U.S. government bent on the destruction of American liberties.

A Monroe-based group called Citizens for the Reinstatement of Constitutional Government has coalesced around Albert Esposito. He denies that he is preaching revolution, but his rhetoric includes clear overtones of preparation for battle with the imagined enemy. He urges the group to amass caches of the "Four B's": Bibles, bullets, beans and bandages. Many members own semiautomatic weapons, including AR-15's and AK-47s.

The group's program is a mixture of anti-government, religious and conspiratorial ideas. It aims to "make the Holy Bible and the United States Constitution the law of the land." and it vows to "resist the coming New World Order (one world government)." To accomplish its goals, it promises to "Remove treasonous politicians and corrupt judges from positions of authority, and return authority to the people." (Precisely how these malefactors are to be removed from office is not slated.)

Citizens for the Reinstatement of Constitutional Government meets twice a month, alternating between Monroe, in Union County, and Matthews, in neighboring Mecklenburg County. At one meeting, Esposito, a 43-year-old contractor, reportedly repeated G. Gordon Liddy's alleged statement about the new crime law's assault weapons ban: "He said. If they pass it, don't obey it. And if they come after you, meet force with force."

The group has distributed application forms for the "National Free and Sovereign Civilian Militia, North Carolina state Division." The forms ask applicants whether they are proficient in the operation of handguns and rifles. "reloading ammo," and a variety of survivalist skills.

Esposito has espoused his views on guns at Union County commissioners' meetings. He also railed against federal encroachment in announcing his support for a nonbinding resolution passed by the commission in support of school prayer. Holding a copy of the Constitution in the air, he declared: "We control the county. Not Washington."

Consistent with such anti-federal government views, Esposito says he has refused to file federal income tax returns for three years running because he regards the tax as unconstitutional.

The group he leads split off from a tax-protest group in Charlotte called the Carolina Patriots, three of whose leaders were convicted in October 1994 of conspiracy to help people avoid their tax obligations. Esposito's group has attempted to distance itself from the Carolina Patriots.

In addition to their views on guns and taxes, members of the Monroe group have expressed ideas and conspiracy theories that are characteristic of some other militias around the country. These include charges that the Federal Reserve system has enriched a tiny elite (the group's literature advocates the abolition of the Federal Reserve), and that some government employees have been implanted with computer chips in order to monitor the citizenry. Another claim made at one of the group's meetings, that the government cannot require private citizens to obtain a driver's license, echoes the stand of an earlier extremist group, the Posse Comitatus.

A separate North Carolina militia group has been formed in Greenville, in the eastern part of the state. Led by Scott Brown, the unit is part of the Idaho-based United States Militia Association. Brown reportedly has said his group worries that government representatives "don't really understand what the Constitution means and stands for, and they're voting away our unalienable rights." It is not known whether the Greenville unit is engaging in any more incendiary rhetoric or activity. But this fear -- which is apparently spreading and growing -- that the government is a threat to the rights of the people, is a central theme that militia groups are feverishly trying to exploit.

A computer bulletin board in Alamance County, called "The Spirit of '76." has served as an area recruiting point for the militia led by Linda Thompson, the Indianapolis woman who is a leading figure in the militia movement nationwide. Another bulletin board system that made Thompson's computerized materials available has referred individuals interested in joining the militia to The Spirit of '76. For its part, The Spirit of '76 has declared itself off limits to police and other government authorities by posting a warning that states: "This BBS [bulletin board system] is a PRIVATE system. Only private citizens who are NOT involved in government or law enforcement activities are authorized to use it."

Christian Identity, Militias

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