Official Says Militias Drop In Popularity

The popularity of militia movements is likely to decline over the next few years although some hard-core groups probably will survive, a state Justice Department official says.

“The government may not be perfect, but certainly you don’t need to arm yourself to protect yourself from the government. Anyone who feels that way is a threat to local law enforcement,” said Mike Batista, administrator of the department’s Law Enforcement Services Division.

Nationwide, he said, there are approximately 239 militia groups - with an unknown number of members - in 39 states, a number spread throughout the Intermountain West. The United States Militia Association is headquartered in Blackfoot, Idaho.

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Militia Task Force puts the total militia membership at 30,000 to 40,000 nationwide. Michigan leads with 38 militia groups, California has 22 and Colorado 20, according to the Montgomery, Ala.-based task force, which says that about 45 of the groups nationally have ties to the Ku Klux Klan.

Batista said the militia movement has benefited from stories about tax protesters and anti-government sentiment in Montana, and that the Militia of Montana has done a good job of recruiting.

But while meetings of the Montana group regularly drew 100 to 500 people 1-1/2 years ago, those numbers have dwindled to 75 to 80 now if meetings are being held at all anymore, he said.

“A lot of the people who attended the meetings were there just out of curiosity,” Batista said. He attributed the decline in attendance to the realization that some militia members engage in criminal acts and to the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City - although no direct militia involvement has been found in the bombing. Batista said it comes as no surprise that the militia movement uses the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents as rallying points.

“There were some mistakes made by federal agencies, and that only solidifies some of the points these people are making,” Batista said.

Many interested in the militia are disillusioned with government.

But, he said, “If people start to see some government change, there will be fewer and fewer sympathizers and fewer and fewer people willing to jump on the bandwagon.”

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