Anti-Government “Patriotic” Militias:
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are 998 anti-governments “patriotic” militia groups active in the United States as of 2015 (Active). The number of these groups was on the decline up until 2008 when the election of President Obama lead to the resurgence of these organizations. The motivation of these groups is to defend them from what they see as a tyrannical government that has overstepped the limits placed on it by the constitution and seek to overthrow the government in a violent manner (What). In the past these groups have tried attacking symbols of government power or agents of the government. They also try to bait responses from the government by open carrying at political demonstrations and occupying federal land. The most deadly act of domestic terror was undertaken by sympathizers of this movement in the Oklahoma city bombing where one hundred sixty eight people were killed in 1995. The most recent high profile event since then was the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016 that came very close to resulting in a shootout between police and the occupying militiamen (Liebelson).