After almost a week being in a standoff with federal authorities, an armed militia continues to occupy a federal building in Burns, Oregon, pushing the envelope of the federal authorities’ compliance into their favor.
The Citizens of Constitutional Freedom, an armed, all-white anti-government group, has taken control of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters, where they have demanded the release of two men who were arrested for arson of federal property.
The ringleaders, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, sons of Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher known for another standoff with the federal government in 2014, are demanding that Dwight and Steven Hammond are released from federal prison or none of their 20 armed men will move from the government building. Ammon Bundy says that their group
“are prepared to stay for years.”
Schools in the small town of Burns have been closed since the standoff, with no employees of the refuge being able to return to work.
The FBI said in a statement Sunday that it was working with local and state police “to bring a peaceful resolution to the situation.”
Ironically, this situation comes on the heels of President Obama’s executive order on gun control and the country’s ongoing issue with terrorism. With an indefinite standoff with the FBI, is it safe to say that these are the same people that the government want to keep guns from or are they the ones that the 2nd Amendment protect?