The rise of armed anti-government extremists — like the ones who seized a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon — is seen as a growing problem in the United States.
The Kansas City Star reports the movement has had a "massive growth spurt" at levels greater than after the infamous siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho in 1992 and bloody standoff in Waco, Texas in 1993.
The newspaper cites an annual report of militias released this week by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It identifies 276 militia groups across the nation — 37 percent more than the 202 groups identified in 2014.
One turning point, according to the group, was the 2014 armed confrontation involving a long legal dispute between the federal government and Nevada cattle rancher, Cliven Bundy, over unpaid grazing fees on federal land. Bundy still has his cattle on the land and hasn't paid any fees.
"When the federal government was stopped from enforcing the law at gunpoint, it energized the entire movement," Heidi Beirich, director of the Law Center's Intelligence Project, told The Star.
"The fact is, Bundy is still a free man and has not paid the money he owes to the federal government — and the militiamen who aimed rifles at federal agents have gotten away with it."
One of the leaders of those occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters in Oregon is Bundy's son, Ammon Bundy.
Leonard Zeskind, president of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, told The Star's Judy Thomas:
"It's bigger than anything we've seen before. And it's not simply a resurgence of the '90s militia movement; it's different in many ways. Now it's much broader."
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