The number of militia groups has increased significantly over the last four years. The Southern Poverty Law center, which tracks so-called "Patriot" groups, warns that their new growth and increasing anger is making them a danger. 
The Southern Poverty Law Center is concerned about the growing threat of domestic terrorism. According to the Center’s new report, the number of conspiracy-minded, anti-government groups have been on the rise, amounting to all-time high of 1,360 “Patriot” groups in 2012.
SincePresident Obama won the 2008 election, only 149 such groups existed. While the number of hate groups actually slightly decreased from 1,018 in 2011 to 1,007 in 2012, the number of Patriot groups went up about 7% in the same time frame. These Patriot groups believe “that the federal government is conspiring to take Americans’ guns and destroy their liberties as it paves the way for a global ‘one-world government.’”
From 149 organizations in 2008, the number of anti-government groups skyrocketed to 512 in 2009, went up to 824 in 2010 and continued to increase to 1,274 in 2011.
The Patriot movement is likely to gain strength from the president’s post-Newtown aggressive gun-control efforts.
Mark Potok, a Senior Fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, pointed out on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, that the “growth has just been astounding over the last 4 years. You know, 813% growth. We’ve never really seen anything like this in any of the groups that we count.” Potok elaborated, “As gun control talk began in the wake of the slaughter in Newtown…[the] whole movement, these groups out there, have gone from sort of a red heat to white heat. So we are at a very scary moment. It is very reminiscent at least to me the months leading up to the Oklahoma City bombing.”
The report defines the Oklahoma City bombing that left 168 men, women and children dead in 1995 as the first wave of the Patriot movement and the first time the public truly witnessed an action instigated from rage on the right. After the passage of the 1993 Brady Bill and the 1994 ban on assault weapons supported by President Bill Clinton, extreme right groups viewed the passage of gun control legislation as a threat to their beliefs. Then, President Obama’s election increased anti-black racism in America. A 2012 AP poll found 51% of Americans expressing explicit anti-black attitudes which rose from 48% in 2008, and 56% expressing implicit anti-black attitudes, up from 48% in 2008.
Mark Potok explained, “I think one other thing played into the enormous expansion of these groups in the last four years, aside from Obama’s appearance on the political scene, and that of course is the economy, which began to collapse at the very same time as Obama appeared running for president. So I think that added an element of real fear and anger and insecurity that made for a kind of perfect storm in terms of fostering the growth of these groups. Now, with the gun control talk, it’s gotten even worse.”
The report’s discovery of a trend pointing towards dangerous actions executed by radical right groups doesn’t offer any method of curtailing this type of movement. “While ignorance is obviously a very old problem, I think the decline of certain institutions — including quite frankly the Republican Party itself — play a role, because there just isn’t as much sanction for that kind of ignorance. And it’s not just on these issues,” says MSNBC’s Ari Melber.
On Tuesday, the Center sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder warning that the gun control debate may lead to dangerous actions from these groups:
“The furious reaction to the Obama administration’s gun control proposals is reminiscent of the anger that greeted the passage of the 1993 Brady Bill and the 1994 ban on assault weapons… Now, in the wake of the mass murder of 26 children and adults at a Connecticut school and the Obama-led gun control efforts that followed, it seems likely that that growth will pick up speed once again.”
Since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the SPLC has counted a little over 100 domestic radical-right plots, conspiracies and racist rampages. Whether the rage on the right is spurred by the Obama-led gun control efforts, by Obama himself, or by a constellation of factors, it’s likely that the growth of these radical right groups will pick up speed once again.
