Some 100 new militia groups have formed since the election of President Barack Obama, says the Southern Poverty Law Center. In a re-run of the phenomenon seen when President Bill Clinton took office, gun-rights advocates, libertarians, survivalists and others are forming militias as a symbol of their resistance to what they see as an administration that threatens to restrict their right to bear arms and expand government control over the lives of private citizens.
“The truth is that these groups are popping up like mushrooms after a spring rain,” said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a social-justice group that has been tracking the rise of militias over the past year.
Potok’s group put out a report earlier this year raising the alarm about the resurgence of armed militias. Since then, he told CNN, the group has counted about 100 new groups formed across the country.
“There really is this terrible fear mixed with fury about the idea that President Obama is somehow leading a socialistic takeover of America,” Potok said.
A CNN news crew that visited the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia found a group that sees itself as a “deterrent” to any attempts to restrict gun use, and otherwise sees itself as a place to learn survival skills.
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