Members of a Michigan militia are pictured outside the state legislature in Lansing in April, protesting against Governor Gretchen Whitmer's lockdown
Michigan has long been a hotbed of militia activity — an open carry state, with a deep divide between the Democrat cities and the Republican rural regions.
The November 2018 election of a female Democratic governor aged in her 40s, Gretchen Whitmer, to replace 62-year-old Republican Rick Snyder has drawn more to join their ranks.
Her decision to impose a strict lockdown in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic only attracted more "freedom loving" residents to their cause.
On Thursday charges were announced against seven members of one of Michigan’s best known militias, the Wolverine Watchmen, accused of plotting to kidnap Ms Whitmer and violently overthrow the state government.
The Wolverine Watchmen is believed to be an offshoot of another Michigan militia, known as the Wolverines.
Michigan is nicknamed the Wolverine State.
Members of a Michigan militia stand outside Whitmer's office door in April, after she extended the coronavirus lockdown
The group was founded in 1994 by Norm Olson, a former US airforce non-commissioned officer, and claims to have more than 80 brigades in nine divisions across the state, according to The Irish Times.
Experts say membership figures tend to ebb and flow according to the contemporary political climate, but could number several thousand at any one time. Current membership was unclear.
Training sessions involving tactical and survival role-playing and weapons use are usually held once a month.
The militia’s 31-page handbook claims the group is not a racist or Right-wing organisation, instead welcoming everyone “regardless of the hue of their skin”.
They do, however, emphasise "the Judeo-Christian influence rooted in our founding fathers."
The seven militia members charged on Thursday are accused of attempting "to instigate a civil war and kidnap officials including the governor."
On their website, the militia state: "A well-armed citizenry is the best form of Homeland Security and can better deter crime, invasion, terrorism, and tyranny."
It adds: "If you are a United States citizen (or have declared your intent to become such), who is capable of bearing arms, or supports the right to do so, then YOU ARE the MILITIA!"
Members of a Michigan militia pictured in Lansing in April 2020
The handbook says they are "not racists fighting ‘the great race war, to annihilate the mud people’."
Nor, they say, are they "terrorists advocating violence or destroying buildings in Oklahoma full of men, women and children" — a reference to Timothy McVeigh, America’s worst domestic terrorist, who blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people and injuring 680.
"Only lunatics do that," they say.
The manifesto goes on to rail against taxes, and explain that they are taking up arms to protect the freedom of US citizens.
"We Americans have lost the concept of true freedom because we no longer know exactly what our rights are. In today’s United States, the word ‘rights’ has been corrupted so completely that few Americans any longer know the difference between procedural rights, civil rights and our unalienable rights and liberties," they say.
Members attend training sessions developing marksmanship and survival skills.
The issue of the militias has come to the fore amid a heated election season, and with a president who is loathe to condemn the armed gangs, who generally are passionate supporters of his campaign.
In at least 45 open-carry states militia members can walk around in public armed and outfitted as if they’re going to war in Iraq or Afghanistan, entirely legally.
The consequences have been fatal.
In Kenosha, Wisconsin, two Black Lives Matter protesters were shot and killed on August 25 by Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old self-declared militia member.
In Portland, Oregon, a member of the far-Right group Patriot Prayer, who show up at rallies heavily armed, was shot and killed by a far-Left gunman.
And in other cities across the US — in Kentucky, in Georgia, in Texas and elsewhere — ugly scenes of militia members confronting protesters have been common this summer.
Many fear that the tension will only increase as the election gets closer, and in the immediate aftermath, if Mr Trump does not win.
Donald Trump won’t accept the results of the election if he loses.
And he’ll do anything to stay in power. pic.twitter.com/Ja0xQJtqCS
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 7, 2020
The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group of former Republicans, this week put out a new campaign video highlighting Mr Trump’s courting of militias and other far-Right groups.
"This isn’t a dog whistle," the voice over says. "It’s a siren."
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