Militia

As legislative sessions wind down, lawmakers in New Mexico and Colorado may impose waiting periods before firearm purchases, while Wyoming and Idaho go in a different direction.

Idaho’s anti-militia statute is one step closer to being repealed after state senators voted Monday to dump the law.

Part of Idaho’s anti-militia law is once again being targeted for repeal under a more conservative state legislature.

This week’s bonus episode is a conversation with Extremely American creator and host Heath Druzin about militias and other far-right movements. It was originally a Twitter Spaces hosted by NPR and Boise State Public Radio. Don’t worry, it’s not a recap of the podcast but rather a look forward with Heath, investigative journalist Dina Temple-Raston and extremism researcher Cristina López G.

As far-right extremism surges, a Nevada Senate race is giving a platform to a controversial group of sheriffs who buck federal authority.

The Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial captured militias’ attention like no other criminal case in recent memory.For them, Rittenhouse embodied the way they see themselves: protectors, keeping their communities from anarchy at the end of a rifle. His acquittal was seen as vindication for them and a green light to continue self-styled armed security.That worries a lot of people. But what’s more worrisome is the celebration of the killings at the heart of the case. The country is starting to get more comfortable with political violence and the Rittenhouse case might be just the beginning.

Idaho House lawmakers voted Wednesday to repeal one of the state’s main anti-militia laws.

Former federal prosecutor Mary McCord is trying to put militias out of business and she’s got their attention. She’s working on a national strategy to get prosecutors and law enforcement to enforce anti-militia laws she says are on the books in every state. And it’s already starting to work. She won a lawsuit against militias who came to the deadly White supremacist Unite The Right rally in 2017. And now she’s suing a New Mexico Civil Guard militia for their role in an Albuquerque protest that turned violent and ended with a protester shot.

The Idaho House could soon take up a bill to repeal a state law that bans private militias.

Jennifer Ellis has lost friends and received threats in her fight to get the Idaho GOP out of the grips of an increasingly far-right ideology. But she’s no liberal – she’s a conservative rancher who knows her way around firearms and has been a behind the scene player in GOP politics for years. Now she’s trying to pull her party back from its increasing coziness with militias, anti-vaxxers and other far-right groups.