Militias in Pennsylvania
GETTYSBURG — Bob Gardner packed up his military gear and firearms on the Fourth of July and headed south to Gettysburg for a battle.
The commanding officer of the PA Light Foot Militia would join hundreds of his brothers in militias from across Pennsylvania to protect the hallowed ground from what appeared to be a group threatening to burn a U.S. flag and desecrate Confederate monuments at the national park.
Groups such as Gardner's call themselves constitutional militia, saying they defend the rights of others. In Pennsylvania, 28 militia organizations are listed on the Southern Poverty Law Center's list of anti-government groups.
Since their birth in the mid-1990s, they have primarily stayed hidden, but this year, they're out — fully armed — to patrol Black Lives Matter rallies, claiming to provide protection from counter protesters. They've also made themselves visible at state capital demonstrations, demanding the reopening of businesses during the pandemic.
But their greatest show of force this year has been in Gettysburg.
Hundreds of male-dominated militia groups joined Gardner's to patrol the battlefields. The Pennsylvania State Militia and Ohio Militiamen joined “preppers,” such as the PA III%ers, to roam fully armed, some dressed in paramilitary gear and ammo straps.The threat to desecrate monuments and burn the flag was a hoax, but something else happened that day that offers a glimpse into the militia movement.As Trent Somes, a 22-year-old white man, walked out of the National Cemetery, he was quickly surrounded by at least 50 men and women yelling profanities at him because he was wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt, he said.Somes videotaped what happened next. No one rose to his defense, even though some were decked out in paramilitary gear and most were clearly armed. One man can be heard on the tape saying, “Leave him alone,” but the barrage of insults continued.Gardner said he was there, helping to de-escalate the verbal assault, but Somes, a seminary student, said no one came to his rescue until law enforcement appeared.That doesn't surprise Mark Pitcavage. He's the senior research fellow for the Anti-Defamation League Center of Extremism.Targets for militia groups now, according to Pitcavage and other experts, are BLM groups, immigrants and Muslims.Gardner, who leads a statewide militia from his home in Juniata County, north of Harrisburg, admits he leans right politically, but he defends Light Foot's ideologies.“Any militia that's constitutional is down the middle. We've gotta hold back our personal thoughts and allow people to have their say,” he said.But he also believes: “The Second Amendment is probably the most important because it protects all the other amendments and puts the powers in the people's hands.”
Growing up in Philadelphia, Gardner wanted to be a cop, like his dad and brother-in-law.“Because of affirmative action, I didn't get hired,” he said.His first weapons were a Glock and an assault rifle, standard pieces for most gun lovers, he said. In his 30s after the Sept. 11 attack, he wanted to enlist in the military, but a back injury kept him out, he said.“I got interested in becoming a prepper,” he said. Preppers are survivalists who prepare for worst-case scenarios — a disruption or crisis in government or social order — by stocking up on food, supplies, firearms and ammunition. In 2012, he joined the militia movement and rose recently to be named commanding officer.He's careful about what he shares publicly and on social media because he fears the consequences of people's negative perceptions of the militia. One of his guys lost his job as a critical care nurse when his militia membership was outed to his employer, Gardner said.“We get a bad rap because we carry guns,” he said.Armed with a petition in January, Gardner visited his local commissioners, asking them to proclaim Juniata County a Second Amendment Sanctuary, hoping to stay protected from federal and state gun restrictions.“If they did try to infringe on our rights, the county wouldn't follow through with it,” said Gardner, 52. The commissioners said they had already taken an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution and left it there.But it's this anti-government sentiment that keeps militias on watch lists.The FBI, on its website, describes this: “Militia extremists ... believe that the Constitution grants citizens the power to take back the federal government by force or violence if they feel it's necessary. They oppose gun control efforts and fear the widespread disarming of Americans by the federal government.”The FBI's Philadelphia field office refused to comment on whether it tracks militia activity in Pennsylvania.Representing the militia line, Gardner said: “Guns keep the government in line because they know that the people are on the same footing as them. ... We make them think twice, so we don't have another Hitler or any dictator come in to threaten the ethnic cleansing of people. ... The people can rise up at any time and put in a new government if they're not happy.”
