[Sarge]

While I have neither read Ms. Wolfe's article or any current edition of SWAT magazine, I will chime in here as it is a topic of some relevance to my profession.

Here in MO we seem to grow a pretty decent extremist. This has been going on since the "border wars" of the 1860's. There will always be a certain person who is looking for a cause to champion, regardless of whether or not they are "oppressed" by gov't or anyone else. The "soldier tree" produces plenty of fruit without much tending, and luckily the best fruit generally winds up in the best baskets- those belonging to the armed forces of the USA. Thus it becomes more likely that the culls & fallen fruit will wind up in in the "whack basket".

There are also a lot of regular folks who are just plain tired of legislation and idiotic supreme court rulings, which encroach further and further into what used to be our private lives. It is much easier to blame "bad old government" than it is to accept responsibility for making bad choices in the voting booth- or (worse in my opinion) none at all.

The law enforcement perspective on these people varies tremendously from officer to officer, and agency to agency. We have had several state troopers killed by them in the last 25 years, and of course OKC was the death knell for domestic extremist groups in general. Many of my contemporaries now see a Tim McVeigh in any new group that rears its head; this includes your basic "tax objector" outfit, who contends that the government has no right to tax them or even write them a traffic ticket. "De law don't apply to me Bub, cause I don't recognize yo' gub'mit!" OK, fine.

Most of us take a little more realistic view of the problem. If Joe Schmuck is trying to shoot me, then Joe Schmuck is my immediate problem. My first order of business is to turn out his lights. We'll worry about whether he was a member of Posey Commytaters, or AAA, later.

Take care & stay safe.