Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Weekend Contributor
It appears that the militia groups who arrived in Nevada to support Cliven Bundy with his standoff against the Bureau of Land Management have become a cause of concern for some residents, workers, and businesses in the area surrounding Bunkerville.
Horsford talks Bunkerville militia presence with Rachel Maddow
KLAS-TV/News NOW (Las Vegas) reported on April 29th that hotels in Mesquite had suffered financial losses of more than $100,000 due to concerns about armed militia groups patrolling in the area. News NOW learned that Mesquite police were investigating death threats made to hotel workers following a bomb threat earlier in April.
Evidently, the threats multiplied as armed militia groups continued to pour into the area surrounding Cliven Bundy’s ranch. One city leader in Mesquite said that “the entire Holiday Inn Express was evacuated for hours following a bomb threat related to the Bundy saga…” News NOW obtained a police report which showed that the Holiday Inn Express had received at least nine threatening telephone calls after the hotel allowed BLM rangers to stay there. Hotel workers were told to kick out the BLM or they “would not be standing in the morning.” One hotel worker, who refused to go on camera, claimed that he was told by an anonymous militia member that he would be “dragged out in the parking lot and shot”.
“We are not a playground for armed militias,” Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., said during a meeting with area leaders about the militia. Horsford said that he had been contacted by residents of his district who were concerned about the armed militia groups from out of state who were still present in their area. Horsford was told by residents that militia groups had set up checkpoints where residents must prove they live in the area before they are allowed to pass…” He was also told that they had set up a “persistent presence” along federal highways, and state and county roads.
Rep. Horsford wrote a letter to the Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie asking him “to look into complaints that militiamen had been present in Bunkerville-area schools and churches and had set up armed checkpoints on state, federal and county roads, seeking proof of residency from motorists.” Horsford said in his letter, “We must respect individual constitutional liberties, but residents of and visitors to Clark County should not be expected to live under the persistent watch of an armed militia. Residents have expressed their desire to see these groups leave their community.” Horsford added that his constituents were being forced to “‘live under the persistent watch of an armed militia,’ that answers to no particular authority other than its own, and is accountable to no one.” He urged the sheriff “to work with local leaders to ensure that their concerns are addressed in a manner that allows the community to move forward without incident.”
Note: A News NOW crew that was in Bunkerville last Tuesday said it did not find any roadblocks in the area “with militia members checking on people trying to pass.”
The StarTribune reported that Bundy’s neighbors and local authorities have grown weary of the Nevada rancher’s unresolved dispute with the BLM. Bundy has denied that any militia members had set up checkpoints on public property. A group of militia members, however, was reported to have stopped a neighboring rancher who was trucking cattle to Arizona. Bundy said the milita members were just helping his son. “They wanted to ensure that Bundy cattle weren’t being rustled.”
Militias’ Ongoing Presence in Nevada Creates Fear and Friction
Cliven Bundy’s Home on the Range (A Mark Fiore Video)
SOURCES
Concerns growing about militia members at Bundy ranch (KLAS-TV)
Businesses lose thousands in Bundy ordeal (KLAS-TV)
Congressman: Bundy Militia Has Set Up Road ‘Checkpoints’ In Nevada (Talking Points Memo)
Bundy Ranch ‘Militia’ Considered Using Women As Human Shield (Talking Points Memo)
Businesses lose thousands in Bundy ordeal (KLAS-TV/News NOW)
Neighbors grow weary of ‘militia’ remaining with Nevada cattle rancher in federal land dispute (StarTribune)
Nevada Congressman Seeks Probe Of Armed Militia Operations At Cliven Bundy Ranch (Reuters/Huffington Post)
Sheriff urged to clamp down on armed militiamen around Bundy ranch (Las Vegas Sun)
Bundy’s ”Militia” Is Lawlessness of a Different Color (Truth-Out)
Ongoing Militia Presence Raises Fears Among Locals Near Bundy Ranch (Southern Poverty Law Center)
NV lawmaker presses sheriff to probe Bundy militiamen (FOX 5/KVVU-TV)
Nevada lawmaker: Cliven Bundy supporters are setting up ‘checkpoints’ against residents (Raw Story)
The Dark Side Of Cliven Bundy’s Conservative Media-Approved Militia (Media Matters)
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SWM, 7 foot straw man. Please refer to my 10:12 comment.
nick, What are the acceptable militia groups? I posted a list of them above.
http://thegrio.com/2012/03/08/officials-see-rise-in-militia-groups-across-us/ Wait, I thought Cliven Bundy played the “race card”.
I think this is a point in the thread when I remind everyone I consider Bundy a buffoon. Proceed.
Huge rise in repressive govt. since Obama was elected.
There it is!! I knew the race card would be played. At 10:06, the card was dealt.
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2012/spring/active-patriot-groups-in-the-united-states Huge rise in patriot groups since Obama was elected.
Come on folks, you’re not arguing w/ a ham n’ egger. In the 60’s, when left wing groups were blowing up buildings and killing people, screaming for insurrection, they were your heroes.
nick, Once a black man vacates the office the militias will shrink. Many are driven by racism. They don’t like any democrat too much but since many are also birthers having what they think is a Kenyan in office is intolerable too them.
When 80% of people don’t trust the govt. fringe people like this grow. If 30% didn’t trust the govt., these groups would be miniscule. Well, they’re growing. It’s pretty basic math. The larger the mistrust, the larger the fringe.
Bill Maher Compares Cliven Bundy’s Supporters To Black Panthers in Philadelphia.
Elaine, so true. I bet someone tries to imply that some here want blind allegiance, that we don’t question overreaches, etc. Nothing could be further from the truth. It isn’t a sign of patriotism to call for insurrection. If our country has problems, and it does, we have the tools in the Consitution to rectify them. What of a Article 5 Constitutional Convention? It’s a better alternative than a civil war, don’t you think? If money influences our elected politicians to the point we have an oligarchy, make an Amendement limiting the amount of money that can be donated by mega rich donors. Make an Amendment to the Consitution that stops spying on its own citizens, etc.
Elaine, When 80% of people do not trust the govt. the adjective that should be use is “most,” not “some.” Words matter. When I interview people part of my assessment is not just body language but the key words they use, are they trying to minimize, maximize? Are they using the appropriate words.
Not trusting the government does not translate into support of scary armed wigged out militia men. What if these militia men were Black Panthers? Freakout time…. Remember when some Black Panthers went to the area where the Zimmerman trial was? All the Zimmerman supporters and gun nuts were having fits.
What happened was that Ronald Reagan, with his government is the enemy philosophy, turned on a lightbulb in an anti society segment of America. Then the Religious Right glommed onto the anti government thing and joined the right wing because they didn’t like Roe v. Wade, they disliked the feminist movement, then they didn’t like that religion in public schools was being rolled back, then they didn’t like that gays demanded equality, then they went nuts.
Some people may not trust the government. That doesn’t mean they trust and approve of self-appointed militia men wielding guns hanging around their communities.
We are ALL “we the people”. Some seem to miss that point.
Annie,
The NRA once supported gun control
It may seem hard to believe, but for decades the organization helped write federal laws restricting gun use
Steven Rosenfeld, Alternet
1/14/13
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/14/the_nra_once_supported_gun_control/
Excerpt:
For nearly a century after, its founding in 1871, the National Rifle Association was among America’s foremost pro-gun control organizations. It was not until 1977 when the NRA that Americans know today emerged, after libertarians who equated owning a gun with the epitome of freedom and fomented widespread distrust against government—if not armed insurrection—emerged after staging a hostile leadership coup.
In the years since, an NRA that once encouraged better markmanship and reasonable gun control laws gave way to an advocacy organization and political force that saw more guns as the answer to society’s worst violence, whether arming commercial airline pilots after 9/11 or teachers after the Newtown, while opposing new restrictions on gun usage.
It is hard to believe that the NRA was committed to gun-control laws for most of the 20th century—helping to write most of the federal laws restricting gun use until the 1980s.
“Historically, the leadership of the NRA was more open-minded about gun control than someone familiar with the modern NRA might imagine,” wrote Adam Winkler, a Second Amendment scholar at U.C.L.A. Law School, in his 2011 book, Gunfight: The Battle Over The Right To Bear Arms In America. “The Second Amendment was not nearly as central to the NRA’s identity for most of the organization’s history.”
Once Upon A Time…
The NRA was founded in 1871 by two Yankee Civil War veterans, including an ex-New York Times reporter, who felt that war dragged on because more urban northerners could not shoot as well as rural southerners. It’s motto and focus until 1977 was not fighting for constitutional rights to own and use guns, but “Firearms Safety Education, Marksmanship Training, Shhoting for Recreation,” which was displayed in its national headquarters.
The NRA’s first president was a northern Army General, Ambrose Burnside. He was chosen to reflect this civilian-militia mission, as envisioned in the Second Amendment, which reads, “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The understanding of the Amendment at the time concerned having a prepared citizenry to assist in domestic military matters, such as repelling raids on federal arsenals like 1786’s Shays Rebellion in Massachusetts or the British in the War of 1812. Its focus was not asserting individual gun rights as today, but a ready citizenry prepared by target shooting. The NRA accepted $25,000 from New York State to buy a firing range ($500,000 today). For decades, the U.S. military gave surplus guns to the NRA and sponsored shooting contests.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the NRA’s leaders helped write and lobby for the first federal gun control laws—the very kinds of laws that the modern NRA labels as the height of tryanny. The 17th Amendment outlawing alchohol became law in 1920 and was soon followed by the emergence of big city gangsters who outgunned the police by killing rivals with sawed-off shotguns and machine guns—today called automatic weapons.
In the early 1920s, the National Revolver Association—the NRA’s handgun training counterpart—proposed model legislation for states that included requiring a permit to carry a concealed weapon, adding five years to a prison sentence if a gun was used in a crime, and banning non-citizens from buying a handgun. They also proposed that gun dealers turn over sales records to police and created a one-day waiting period between buying a gun and getting it—two provisions that the NRA opposes today.
Nine states adopted these laws: West Virginia, New Jersey, Michigan, Indiana, Oregon, California, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Connecticut. Meanwhile, the American Bar Association had been working to create uniform state laws, and built upon the proposal but made the waiting period two days. Nine more states adopted it: Alabama, Arkansas, Maryland, Montana, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
State gun control laws were not controversial—they were the norm. Within a generation of the country’s founding, many states passed laws banning any citizen from carrying a concealed gun. The cowboy towns that Hollywood lionized as the ‘Wild West’ actually required all guns be turned in to sheriffs while people were within local city limits. In 1911, New York state required handgun owners to get a permit, following an attempted assassination on New York City’s mayor. (Between 1865 and 1901, three presidents had been killed by handguns: Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley.) But these laws were not seen as effective against the Depression’s most violent gangsters.
WHY??? Look @ a Gallup poll. Currently 80% of people don’t trust govt. That’s more than Clive Bundy. Only 19% of people trust govt. Incidents like Ruby Ridge, Waco, and now this is the govt. bucking up, showing who’s boss. This time someone made the right call and cooler heads prevailed. When 80% of the people do not trust the govt. shit like this happens. And, if WE THE PEOPLE do not take back our govt., we may look like the Ukraine soon.