Militias Are On The Rise In Arizona.
To hear those agents tell it, Arizona is experiencing an unprecedented boom in right-wing recruitment, largely through militias scattered across the state. One manifestation of that boom may have been the sabotage of the Southern Pacific Railroad line outside Hyder, Arizona, last month, which derailed Amtrak's Sunset Limited and for which a group called the Sons of the Gestapo took credit. Another is the increasing anti-governmental tone of local politics throughout the state, especially in rural districts, chiefly directed at agencies like the federal Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The draw is strong these days, and much of it centers on the booming area around Prescott , where David Espy, a self-styled American revolutionary, drew a large turnout a year ago when he posted a notice in the Prescott Courier for an inaugural meeting of the Sons and Daughters of Liberty. Espy is joined in the Phoenix area by Gary D. Hunt, a militia leader who cites the Waco Branch Davidian siege of 1993 for the upsurge in right-wing activity statewide.