GEORGIA – Down a Georgia country
road, camouflaged members of the Three Percent Security Force have mobilized
for rifle practice, hand-to-hand combat training — and an impromptu campaign
rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

“How many people are voting
for Trump? Ooh-rah!” asks Chris Hill, a paralegal who goes by the code
name “Bloodagent.”

“Ooh-rah!” shout a
dozen militia members in response, as morning sunlight sifted through the trees
last weekend.

As the most divisive presidential
election in recent memory nears its conclusion, some armed militia groups are
preparing for the possibility of a stolen election on Nov. 8 and civil unrest
in the days following a victory by Democrat Hillary Clinton.

They say they won’t fire the first
shot, but they’re not planning to leave their guns at home, either.

Trump’s populist campaign has
energized militia members like Hill, who admire the Republican mogul’s promise
to deport illegal immigrants, stop Muslims from entering the country and build
a wall along the Mexico border. Trump has repeatedly warned that the election
may be “rigged,” and has said he may not respect the results if he
does not win. At least one paramilitary group, the Oath Keepers, has called on
members to monitor voting sites for signs of fraud.

Armed paramilitary groups first
gained prominence in the early 1990s, fueled by confrontations in Ruby Ridge,
Idaho and Waco, Texas, culminating in a militia sympathizer’s 1995 bombing of a
federal office building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people.

Their numbers dwindled following
that attack but have spiked in recent years, driven by fears that President
Barack Obama will threaten gun ownership and erode the power of local
government. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups, estimates
there were 276 active militias last year, up from 42 in 2008.

In recent years, armed groups
have confronted federal authorities in a series of land-use disputes in the
western United States. Federal officials fear more clashes could come after
seven militants were acquitted on conspiracy charges for occupying a federal
wildlife refuge in Oregon.

Many fear Clinton would push the
county further to the left.

“This is the last chance to
save America from ruin,” Hill said. “I’m surprised I was able to
survive or suffer through eight years of Obama without literally going insane,
but Hillary is going to be more of the same.”

EXTREMIST GROUPS EMBOLDENED

The Oath Keepers, a prominent
anti-government force that sent gun-toting members to the 2014 race riots in
Ferguson, Missouri, called on members last week to monitor voting sites on
election day for any signs of fraud.

An hour south of Atlanta, the
Three Percent Security Force started the day around the campfire, taking turns
shooting automatic pistols and rifles at a makeshift target range. They whooped
with approval when blasts from one member’s high-powered rifle knocked down a
tree.

The group operates independently,
but is affiliated with a national armed movement that calls for members to
defend individual rights in the face of what they see as an overreaching
federal government. The movement draws its name from the notion that no more
than 3 percent of the American population fought in the Revolutionary War
against Britain.

Amid the war games, Hill weighed
plans for a possible armed march on Washington if Clinton wins.

He said he doesn’t want his
members leading the way, but they will defend the protesters if need be. His
group will not hesitate to act if a President Clinton tries to disarm gun
owners, he said.

“I will be there to render
assistance to my fellow countrymen, and prevent them from being disarmed, and I
will fight and I will kill and I may die in the process,” said Hill, who
founded the militia several years ago.

Trump’s candidacy has emboldened
extremist groups to speak more openly about challenging the rule of law, said
Ryan Lenz, a researcher at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“Prior to this campaign
season, these ideas were relegated to sort of the political fringe of the
American political landscape,” he said. “Now these ideas are
legitimized.”

Over the past week, some
prominent Trump supporters have hinted at violence.

    “If
Trump loses, I’m grabbing my musket,” former Illinois Representative Joe
Walsh wrote on Twitter last week. Conservative commentator Wayne Root
fantasized about Clinton’s death while speaking at a Trump rally in Las Vegas
on Sunday.

Back in Georgia, the Three
Percent Security Force wrapped up rifle practice in the midday sun. They then
headed further into the trees to tackle an obstacle course with loaded pistols
at their sides, ready for whatever may come.

“We’ve building up for this,
just like the Marines,” he said. “We are going to really train harder
and try to increase our operational capabilities in the event that this is the
day that we hoped would never come.”

-Reuters