Formation
The two events that contributed to the formation and growth of the Michigan Militia were the Federal standoff at the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas (see Waco Siege) and the Federal standoff with the Weaver family in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Members of the Michigan Militia believed these events, which involved agents of the FBI and BATF, were alarming shows of force by the federal government against citizens who had not committed any federal crimes, but were targeted for simply having views contrary to those in government at the time. In addition, several gun control laws passed during the early Clinton Administration increased fears amongst citizens that Second Amendment rights were being severely curtailed by the federal government.
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Famous quotes containing the word formation:
“Out of my discomforts, which were small enough, grew one thing for which I have all my life been grateful—the formation of fixed habits of work.”
—Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844–1911)
“The formation of an oppositional world view is necessary for feminist struggle. This means that the world we have most intimately known, the world in which we feel “safe” ... must be radically changed. Perhaps it is the knowledge that everyone must change, not just those we label enemies or oppressors, that has so far served to check our revolutionary impulses.”
—Bell (c. 1955)
“The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)