US Militias not Ready to Lay Down Arms
In the woods south of Atlanta, John and Yvette DeMaria are with about a dozen camouflage-wearing, heavily armed Americans huffing and puffing as they scramble to navigate the sprawling piece of property where they train, one weekend a month, to ward off enemies — foreign or domestic.
The DeMarias are with the Georgia Security Force militia, whose members are relieved that Donald Trump won the presidency but believe it would be a mistake to lay down their arms just because he is in the White House. So they continue to take to the woods to be ready for whatever may come, whether it's an economic crisis that spawns unrest or Islamic extremists carrying out attacks on American soil.
"I started to realize that I got very angry because the system has been so abused over and over and over again, making rights out of thin air for people who don't deserve to get anything," said John DeMaria, who goes by the nickname Rooster J.
While it is impossible to track all the groups that often are no more than a handful of men gathering in woods, experts says that militia activity tends to fall off under Republican presidents and ramp up under Democrats. But just as last year's election upended conventional models, those who watch militias say life in the Trump era may not follow the same patterns.
If anything, it could be a potential powder keg, if those feelings of having a kindred spirit in Trump erupt into a sense of betrayal if he fails to deliver on his promises.
"What would concern me is that nobody gets more angry than a fan spurned," said James Corcoran, a professor at Simmons College in Boston who has watched militias closely for decades and has written extensively about the movement.
The leader of the Georgia Security Force, Chris Hill, remains deeply skeptical of Congress and worries the lawmakers will undermine Trump's agenda: preventing him from building a wall on the Mexico border, repealing "Obamacare" and fulfilling his promise to "Make American Great Again."
"Even if President Trump is able to do the things that he wants to do, he's still got Congress to contend with. Congress is the same old dog-and-pony show. All they do is fight. They're never going to grant us more freedom," said Hill, who goes by the nickname General BloodAgent.
