Sources indicate that militia organizing in Colorado has been frozen in the aftermath of the April 19 bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building. Meetings have been put on hold, though it does not appear that the groups have disbanded.

Despite this development. anti-federal government and conspiracy-oriented tirades continue to be phoned in by listeners to radio station KHNC in Johnstown, which broadcasts a steady stream of "patriot" programs. In recent weeks some callers have expressed the view, held by many militia supporters, that the government itself carried out the Oklahoma City blast.

Another important vehicle for pro-militia activism in Colorado is The USA Patriot Magazine, edited by D. A. Weideman and published monthly by the USA Patriot Network in Johnstown. The periodical, whose cover price is "4 FRNs" (Federal Reserve Notes), contains a "Telephone & Address Book" listing dozens of contacts. Among them are lie Free American a pro-militia periodical from New Mexico; Militia Supply. identified as a "Patriot Hardware" outlet with a catalog and a toll-free phone number; Mark Koernke (listed as "Mark from Michigan"), whose speeches and videotapes have encouraged militia organizing throughout the country; and Bob Fletcher, of the Militia of Montana.

Fletcher has traveled to Colorado on behalf of his militia. In a January 1995 speech in Fort Collins, he instructed fledgling militiamen that "you better damn well learn how to use a gun if you don't know how to use one now."

Prior to the Oklahoma bombing, militias had organized in Larimer and Weld Counties near the Wyoming border, in counties around Denver, in Park County west of Colorado Springs, and in the southern region of the state.

Charles Duke

Colorado's militia movement has been publicly defended by State Senator Charles Duke, who has reportedly said that "the few militia people I know practice a policy of nonviolence, ... not altogether too different from a Boy Scout kind of idea." Following the Oklahoma City bombing, a Denver Post columnist reported that Duke raised the possibility of a government role in the bombing: "They're certainly capable of it. Look what they did to Waco. There's many people around the country who believe they did it.... Is it unreasonable to see the continuation of a pattern here?"

ADL Fact Finding Report, "Beyond the Bombing: The Militia Menace Grows," Anti-Defamation League, 1995.

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