There Is No Easy Answer on Militias

SACRAMENTO — He had seen suspicious black helicopters nearby unloading troops wearing blue helmets, the man said. So he had come on a fact-finding mission. His small militia group, the Shasta Patriots, was thinking of assaulting the building. Was this the ATF?

No, he was assured. This was the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, not the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

What was its connection to the United Nations? he queried.

None whatsoever.

Then why were all those U.N. troops in the telltale blue helmets being dropped by rope from helicopters behind the building?

Those weren’t troops, he was told. They were smoke jumpers being trained by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection next door. And the helicopters were locally chartered. They weren’t mysterious craft painted black by the government to hide their identity. Honest, there was no U.N. multinational force being assembled to confiscate private firearms and occupy the Northern Sacramento Valley.

Here, this is a copy of our mission and my credentials, said Jack Nehr, special agent in charge of the bureau’s regional office in Redding.

But the “fact-finder”--a casually dressed white male looking to be in his mid-30s--was not convinced. His militia might retaliate against the ATF for its assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Tex., he said. And it was bent on helping to defend America from a U.N. takeover.

That was last May. Security was tightened. Two months later, there was a phone tip from an informant that the Patriot and some cohorts were planning to bomb the Redding office, still believing it to be an ATF enclave.

The state Justice Department launched an investigation. The FBI in Washington coordinated intelligence. A search warrant was issued. The man’s home was raided.

Seized, according to Nehr, were documents about extremists and paramilitary activities, manuals on explosives and booby traps, powder that could be used in bomb making and several semiautomatic assault weapons.

“Almost everything in his closet was starched fatigues,” Nehr said. “The guy’s a real paranoid.”

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But after a lengthy grilling, there was no arrest. The firearms were all legal. The powder could have been used for reloading ammunition. And it’s not against the law to possess written material, no matter how bizarre.

The incident points up the difficulty of dealing with private militias--or even hate groups such as neo-Nazis--in a society that cherishes freedom.

It’s rather refreshing that state legislators, who usually churn out new bills claiming solutions to any problem highlighted by the latest catastrophe, have been virtually silent on the Oklahoma City bombing. So have Gov. Pete Wilson and other elected state officials. They actually seem to be pausing to think.

There already is a California law, for example, that prohibits a “paramilitary organization” from “practicing with weapons” to engage in “civil disorder.” It certainly could be toughened. The penalty is only a misdemeanor and state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren says he has never heard of a prosecution. But it might be impossible to write a statute prohibiting people from training to defend against blue-helmeted aliens.

“We have identified 31 militia chapters in California, mostly in the north,” says Lungren. “But just because they profess unpopular positions and have an affinity for weapons doesn’t make them illegal. And I don’t want to feed their paranoia by suggesting that we in law enforcement are getting ready to pounce.”

Lungren is in a sensitive position because his political base is on the Republican right, where there’s some empathy with militias. But even he has been picketed by gun groups protesting his opposition to assault weapons.

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As the cliche goes, guns don’t kill, people do. Guns don’t fan flames of hatred either; people do with their words. And gunners with their vitriolic rhetoric are among the most guilty.

A flyer distributed in the Redding area--by the Shasta Patriots, the Justice Department believes--cautions citizens to “beware of armed bands . . . These gangs are highly organized, well armed and potentially violent.” There’s a picture of “a typical gang member” and he’s a policeman.

A letter to legislators from the Constitutional Rights Federation in Hermosa Beach warns, “We consider (gun control) to be TREASON and respond accordingly . . . We want the scalps of every anti-gun politician, bureaucrat and public employee.”

Taking political scalps is very American. Reckless rhetoric that physically threatens politicians or police officers--or any innocent person--is simply sick, legal or not.