Militias have gained recent public attention because these groups have been involved in many high profile incidents such as the recent attack on the Capitol. Many in these militias would describe themselves as patriots, freedom fighters, and are usually vehemently anti-government. They have been seen around the nation at gatherings and are usually armed and carry politically charged paraphernalia such as flags. These groups saw a surge with the election of Barack Obama, however unorganized militias are not a new phenomenon.

Many right wing militia movements appeared as a reaction to two botched standoffs in 1992 and 1993, although fringe groups did exist since the 1980s. These two standoffs were the Ruby Ridge standoff and the Waco siege. The 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff involved a white supremacist named Randy Weaver, his family, a family friend, and federal agents. The standoff began when agents attempted to arrest Randy Weaver as he had failed to appear in court on firearms charges. The standoff left Weaver’s 14 year old son Sam, his wife, Vicki, and a US Marshall dead. Investigations after the siege revealed that agents failed to properly establish communication with each other and the Weavers. 

The Waco siege in 1993 occurred when the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, or ATF failed to arrest the leader of the Branch Davidians and search their compound for illegally modified weapons due to a shootout. The FBI took command of the situation and a 51 day siege ensued. On the 51st day of the siege, a fire broke out when an armored vehicle rammed into the compound to deploy tear gas. It has still not been completely explained how or why the fires started but an independent investigation into the fire found the Davidians were ultimately responsible.

After these two tragedies, unofficial civilian militias began to pop up around the country such as the Michigan Militia, one of the fastest growing groups which proclaimed itself to be a freedom force, willing to take on the federal government. By 1994, the amount of militias surged with over 400 such militias during its height but several incidents during the mid to late 1990s led to a FBI crackdown on militias. Fast forward to the election of Barack Obama, new fears of excessive government oversight led to a surge of militia groups that would later be emboldened by former president Donald Trump.

https://www.retroreport.org/video/the-shadow-of-waco/
https://www.adl.org/education/resources/backgrounders/militia-movement
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/armed-militia-groups-surging-across-nation
https://www.retroreport.org/video/ruby-ridge-american-standoff/
https://archive.org/details/WacoFBI/83259326-FBI-File-Waco-Part-02-of-10