New Target : After Communism, Soldier of Fortune Followers Shift Focus, Aim at Street Criminals, Anti-Gun Lobby and Federal Agencies

Robert Brown, retired Army colonel, adrenaline junkie and editor of the blood-and-guts magazine Soldier of Fortune, surveyed the gathering of his macho tribe and noted with pleasure that it would never be confused with your average convention.

“We are not the Rotarians,” said Brown between short spits of Skoal.

No kidding. Not much commonality exists between the 16th annual Soldier of Fortune confab, which ends today at the Sands Hotel, and the usual assemblages of chiropractors and bond traders and pharmaceutical salesmen that are the standard fare in this convention and gambling city.

One tip-off to the difference between SOF and any other convention may have been the seminar on the latest sniper techniques. Or the demonstration on using a knife in a street fight. Or the pistol-rifle-shotgun competition in the desert, the SRO lecture on 200 years of exotic weapons, and the ubiquitous talk at the pool, the bar and other convention venues about America being imperiled by enemies in its midst.

The meeting of Brown’s merry band of followers gets bigger every year. This year the gathering attracted 500 conventioneers for a five-day extravaganza of seminars and demonstrations, plus several thousand persons who attended a military/self-defense trade show where 400 vendors displayed the latest in gizmos and gadgets designed to terminate with extreme prejudice.

But something was different this year among the mercenary- and munitions-minded.

Not that long ago the talk at these fests was how to stay razor sharp to fight the Communists, the religious fanatics in the Middle East or the shock troops of various Third World dictators.

Now the threat that requires constant vigilance is seen largely as domestic: street criminals (a.k.a. dirtbags), the anti-gun lobby and federal law enforcement agencies, particularly the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

“As evil as this country has become, and it’s become insidiously evil, if the Lord doesn’t punish this country, he owes an apology to Sodom and Gomorrah,” said convention lecturer Bob Spear, whose radio show, “The Preparedness Hour,” is heard over the USA Patriot Network.

Even Brown has not been wearing his “I’d Rather Be Killing Commies” T-shirt. He would rather give lectures about David Koresh, Randy Weaver and how the ATF is allegedly buying combat aircraft.

Gone is one of the most popular seminars of past conventions on the “Communist Insurgency Infrastructure.” This year, one of the most heavily attended sessions concerned the “militarization of law enforcement agencies.”

If there is a patron saint of the Soldier of Fortune crowd--besides the salty-talking Brown--it may be this year’s keynote speaker, G. Gordon Liddy, a convention regular.

Some months ago, Liddy opined that even a heavily armored federal agent can be brought down with a shot to the groin or head. The comment caused a furor in some circles, particularly among federal agents, but it appears to have endeared him to Soldier of Fortune readers.

Liddy, a former FBI agent, told reporters Saturday that federal law enforcement agencies are “making war on the American people” and that “the American people resent that and fear that and it creates a lot of hostility.”

James William Gibson, a sociology professor at Cal State Long Beach who has written a book on Soldier of Fortune and other aspects of the “warrior culture” in America, said the group’s recent animosity toward the federal government is part of its almost desperate search for a new enemy now that the Cold War is over and global communism is on the wane.

“They live with the notion that life is only meaningful when you are struggling against an ingrained enemy,” Gibson said in a telephone interview. “It shouldn’t surprise us that the face of the devil can change.”

It is an article of faith among many conventioneers that America is headed toward cataclysm, not with the Kremlin or Saddam Hussein but with an enemy from within, possibly an enemy with Civil Service protection.

“When America goes to hell, and it’s every man for himself, the guys here are the ones who’ll survive, the real soldiers of fortune,” said Terry Browning, a computer consultant from Wimberly, Tex.

“The convention is a good opportunity to meet people who are like-minded,” said Steven Newman, a police officer in San Bernardino. “The people here are true freedom-lovers who feel the government has no business restricting what they do or where they do it.”

For Robert Mohler, a financial consultant from Arcadia, the convention was a good time to do some politicking. He is running for Congress on a platform of “God, guts and guns.”

“Somebody has to save our liberty from our own government,” he said.

For active-duty and retired military, the convention is a chance to reminisce about clandestine operations of the past. For those conventioneers who never served in uniform or had an opportunity to blow away a bad guy, it’s a kind of fantasy camp.

“A lot of what we have here are special forces wanna-bes,” said James West, an Army veteran and martial arts instructor from Fayetteville, N.C.. “Most of them haven’t been in a knife fight or gone hand-to-hand with an enemy that wants to kill them. This is a chance for them to rub elbows with those of us who have. It’s good for them.”

There was the aroma of masculine camaraderie in the air among these conventioneers who favor camouflage pants, paratrooper boots and tight T-shirts with political slogans. “Is Your Church ATF Approved?” said one shirt, a reference to the storming of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Tex.

The convention is infused with the sense of imminent danger. In a seminar on street fighting, Bob Taylor, a self-defense expert from northern Idaho, explained that criminals are becoming smarter and meaner.

“The last four or five dirtbags I dusted in raids were using the Weaver stance (holding their gun with two hands),” Taylor said to his audience. “This idea that they wave their guns around and can’t control them is b.s. They watch Steven Segal movies.”

Several times during his demonstration Taylor asked if there were any undercover ATF agents in attendance. Before the convention opened, Brown warned the attendees about possible infiltrators from the ATF.

“That kind of paranoia is sad,” responded ATF spokeswoman Susan McCarron.

Nearly all the conventioneers were white males and at least a few were angry. This is a reportable fact because they were wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Angry White Man.”

Just how many are angry enough to join the militia movement is unclear, although a number of conventioneers were wearing Michigan Militia hats. The paramilitary militias have come under increased scrutiny because authorities believe both suspects in the Oklahoma City bombing were on the fringes of the movement.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if some of our people are in militias,” Brown said. “If so, I don’t know them. I’m not in a militia but frankly I understand people’s fears [that cause them to join militias]. I’m just too old to go running around in the bush.”

But not too old to continue his trips to the hottest of the international hot spots from Afghanistan to Kuwait. His exploits are chronicled in his magazine, which made its debut about the time Saigon fell to the Communists, and now has a circulation close to 100,000.

Brown, 63, who is slight of build and has hearing problems, spent eight years on active duty and the rest of his career in the reserves. He just returned from a mission to Bosnia where he delivered some firefighting equipment and ended up under fire in an area known as Sniper’s Alley.

“I like living on the fine edge,” Brown said. “That’s how I get my adrenaline rush. Some guys go to the Bahamas for a vacation. I go to Sarajevo.”

His bullets-were-everywhere tales aside, Brown is as proud of the stories his magazine has run on the ATF--stories the agency says are peppered with gross inaccuracies--as anything he has done in his liberty-loving career.

“Col. Brown is doing what all Americans should do--he’s fighting for freedom,” said Art Boone, a contractor from Scottsdale, Ariz. “He’s been overseas to fight and now he’s fighting at home.”