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The Quiet Retooling of the Militia Movement
Recruitment
Posted: September 7, 2004
Despite distrust and suspicion, many militia activists are willing to reveal themselves to the extent necessary for recruitment:
• Texas: A Brazoria County, Texas, group, the South Texas Light Infantry, described themselves in one recruiting message as a "group of concerned citizens who feel the need to prepare for an economic collapse caused either by terrorism abroad or within the USA, or a piss poor leadership of our Country. We have lost many of our God Given Rights and see a bad moon rising." Enough interest in joining militia groups emerged in 2004 to cause Texas militia activists to create a new Web site, the Modern Minuteman, "dedicated to helping militia units and potential members to initiate contact." By June 2004, 20 militia groups from 12 states had provided contact information. With such attitudes, activists in "new" militia groups seek recruits in settings ranging from gun shows to the Internet.
• Tennessee: In March 2004, "The newly founded 1st Tennessee Volunteer Militia," announced that one of its members, George Keller, "is looking for people of like mind here in the middle Tennessee area. Please feel free to contact us…" Only a month before, Keller had unsuccessfully sought to find an already existing militia unit in the area.
• Washington: A Washington state militia activist announced the creation of the Grays Harbor Militia in Hoquiam around the same time, to "protect our familys [sic] and friends in a time of unrest…So far we are small but like all militias growing."
• Florida: In Florida, the militia movement had virtually disappeared after the turn of the millennium. By 2004, however, activists were trying to revive it, and not only in Lee County. In a Texas militia publication, one south Florida militia member noted that "there are people in the Dade-Broward County area that view us as gun nuts, terrorists, and just plain creepy." However, he had a plan to remedy matters: "I believe that if we start banding together that we can create a network of fellow minded patriots…it could greatly help out our cause. Field Training Exercises would be secluded…Land would become available and we wouldn't have to train as lone wolf or two manned squad units."
• West Virginia: Other states where the militia movement had previously collapsed have also been seeing renewed interest. In West Virginia, militia activity melted away after the 1996 arrests and convictions of a number of West Virginia Mountaineer Militia members in connection with an attempt to destroy an FBI fingerprinting facility. By 2004, however, interest began to resurface. In response to the April USMC training, the West Virginia Militia announced that they were "planning for it." The West Virginia Militia would not be hostile, it said, "but will not be friendly either…Unpredictable? You bet!"
• South Carolina: In South Carolina, the militia movement also began to reorganize. In March 2004, J. P. Keck of the South Carolina Minutemen Corps announced that "we are currently looking to expand and regroup. We have a great core that stands for what we all feel is the right things [sic] and are not radicals. We would appreciate any people interested in joining or looking to advise in the rebuilding of this great core of men and women."
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