by Alan W. Bock

About the author: Alan W. Bock is senior columnist for the Orange County Register, a newspaper published in Orange County, California. He is the author of the book Ambush at Ruby Ridge.

Before the April 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City the “citizens’ militias” that have cropped up throughout the country in recent years had a reputation as harmless nuts with a penchant for paranoia and kooky conspiracy theories. Now they are widely seen as a serious threat to public order and safety.

The Bombing Suspects and the Militias

The transformation from wacky to dangerous was triggered by alleged links between the militia movement and suspects in the Oklahoma City bombing. The evidence of these links so far is fragmentary and uncertain. Early press accounts reported that...