ABSTRACT
The armed militia movement that emerged in 1994 was the militant wing of the larger Patriot movement-a diverse right-wing populist revolt composed of independent groups in many states. At its height in the mid-1990s perhaps as many as five million U.S. citizens accepted to varying degrees the Patriot contention that our government was manipulated by conspiratorial elites and planning to impose some form of repression. The antigovernment aspect of the Patriot movement focused on federal gun control, taxes, regulations, and a range of actions identified as federal attacks on individual citizen’s Constitutional liberties. In anticipation of an attack by government forces, a significant segment of the Patriot and armed militia movement embraced survivalism.
