Chronology of the Oklahoma City bombing case John Stackpole, fresh from three days of combat training in the rugged mountains outside Knoxville, Tenn., was trying to talk liberty with the guy across the street on Friday when he ran into some familiar resistance. He knows literally nothing about the Constitution.
People have to remember there was a militia before there was a country.
But he and his compatriots appear to have lost that war. Although militia devotees deny it, groups that have tracked the militia movement for years say it is badly flagging, a victim of the carnage of Oklahoma City and the ideals of Timothy McVeigh, who is scheduled for execution on Monday. An annual report by the Southern Poverty Law Center found the number of militia or patriot-type groups has plummeted from 858 in 1996, the year after the bombing, to 194 last year. The Anti-Defamation League, which operates Militia Watch, reports a similar decline. Both cite militia Web sites, publications, police and interviews with current and former members for the findings.