The Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City lay in ruins, bombed by a young man rumored to have connections to a swelling movement of right-wing organizations who labeled themselves militias.

The specter of more terrorist attacks by these groups haunted the country: stories on the militia movement dominated news headlines, Congress held investigative hearings with prominent militia leaders, and law enforcement agencies vowed to go on the offensive to stop the perceived threat.

But as militias were thrust into the glare of the national spotlight, they were also going through a crisis. In the aftermath of the bombing, the ranks of the militia movement were decimated by attrition. Just as public fears were at an apex, the strength of militias was waning.

Six years later, the militia movement as a whole has changed substantially.

"It's just like other political movements in that it's been morphing and readjusting and changing its focus," says Travis McAdam, a researcher at Montana Human Rights Network, a watchdog group for militias and other fringe organizations.

After Bombing, Militias Soften Approach

Militias usually identify themselves as such because of their training activities, which usually involve congregating in rural areas and doing shooting and combat drills. But they have become notorious for uncompromising positions on Second Amendment issues and extremist beliefs in conspiracy theories.

But observers and participants agree that changes in individual militias have made it more difficult to characterize the movement as a whole. Groups disagree about tactics and have different goals. While most militias have stuck to hard-line beliefs and some still advocate armed resistance to government, other groups have become more conciliatory.

'We've attracted more of your everyday citizens — it's not just rednecks running through the woods.'

Mark Pitcavage, director of fact-finding for the Anti-Discrimination League, also warns that the term militia is often misused to refer to other fringe groups. He says many groups in the "Patriot" movement are not really militias, although they may hold similar beliefs. In addition, there are a bevy of hate groups operating in America that, in some instances, may have ties to militias but should not be conflated with the movement.

Talk to a few key leaders who have been involved with real militias for some time, and it becomes clear when they believe their fortunes first began to turn for the worse — the morning of April 19, 1995.

"The major change was the bombing in 1995 in Oklahoma City. That changed the terms and direction of the militias. Up until that time we were growing very quickly," says Norm Olson, founder of the Michigan Militia Corps, perhaps the first strictly organized militia in the country. "About a third of the militias went underground…and another third also walked away from the militias altogether. They didn't want to be associated with it."

Norm Olson founded the Michigan Militia/AP Photos

But for Olson and other hard-line leaders of the militia movement, the decrease in numbers had a silver lining. "It forced many people in the movement out of it — most of those people were in it for the wrong reasons anyway. Ego. They were in it for their stinking egos," says John Trochmann, leader of the Militia of Montana since its creation in 1992.

Schisms Form

But while the bombing may have left militias with more committed members, those who remained often had very different ideas about what direction their organizations should be heading. In the aftermath of the bombing, militias were widely vilified. The primary schism within the movement revolved around whether or not to change tactics and try to garner more public support.

"(Some militias) have gone mainstream in the ways that they go about things," says Rachelle Schnapf, Editor of Media Bypass, a magazine that received widespread media attention when Timothy McVeigh chose them for an exclusive interview from prison. "They jump through the hoops that they have to. They're not doing the extremist things the public expects them to."

This new attitude hasn't sat well with the more hawkish voices in the movement, who claim that the more conciliatory groups have been co-opted.

"They adopted other less controversial methods," says Olson with a hint of derision. "Adopt a highway. Let's go give teddy bears to kids at the hospital. Let's get the American people to like us … I like to call it squeezably soft, politically correct, and socially acceptable."

A Kinder, Gentler Militia?

Kristin Stoner, who maintains cordial relations with Olson, is a core member of the type of militia at which he snubs his nose. But she only sees good things in her organization's movement towards the mainstream.

"We've attracted more of your everyday citizens — it's not just rednecks running through the woods," says Stoner. "It's a lot of professionals, the guy sitting next to you at work. Because of that, the extreme conspiracy theory types have split off."

Stoner maintains that extremist groups, by maintaining that they are militias, have just hurt the cause of organizations like her own, which aim to work with local authorities and provide help in case of emergency. "If you're going to be an anti-New World Order blah, blah, blah, group, just call yourself that, because you're not a militia," she says. "I look at some of these guys and think, 'Man you guys are nuts.'"

Stoner and some of her fellow militia members in Wayne County, Michigan, have actually made the unusual step of creating a non-profit corporation. "When Michigan Militia Incorporated was formed, a lot of groups out there were like 'Oh no, you're in bed with the state."

"But if things were as they're supposed to be, you'd be partners with the government, with the police," says Stoner. "We got a lot of flak for that."

Extreme Beliefs Still the Norm

Though Stoner's organization may represent the kinder, gentler face of the militia movement, observers say that her type of militia is uncommon. More often, the mainstream façades that groups adopt are only ruses that conceal an extremist belief system.

"You see a lot of these groups being very opportunistic, and if a certain issue is hot they gravitate towards it," says Pitcavage.

A good example can be found in Montana, where land use and development has been a hot issue in recent years. Trochmann's Militia of Montana has allied itself with the burgeoning "wise-use" movement — which advocates devolving land use decisions to the local level.

'In the long run, the Oklahoma City bombing sent a wake-up call to law enforcement'

Trochmann claims that wise-use is a natural plank in his militia's political platform. But McAdam sees more sinister motives. "The land use movement is a way to market their ideas. Really, it's just another way to recruit people in so they can continue to get people believing the hard anti-government message," he says. "When you peel the layers away, the original message is still the same."

The extremism of these anti-government views continues to raise concern in law enforcement circles. While there have been no terrorist actions of late on the scale of the Murrah bombing, several attempted attacks have been narrowly averted.

In 1995, a white supremacist named Ray Lampley, who claimed to lead the Oklahoma State Militia, was arrested for plotting to blow up federal buildings, several non-profit organizations and gay bars. He was actually turned in by members of the Tri-State Militia after mentioning his plans at a meeting.

Authorities arrested 12 members of the Arizona Viper Militia in 1996 after an undercover operation revealed that the group was considering blowing up a building. Agents discovered 400 pounds of ammonium nitrate — a common bomb-making material — and a home-made videotape on which members discussed the best way to explode certain targets.

Walter Sanville, a member of the Arizona Viper Militia, is serving time in federal prison after pleading guilty to weapons and explosives charges/AP Photos

Pitcavage thinks authorities deserves much of the credit. "In the long run, the Oklahoma City bombing sent a wake-up call to law enforcement," he says. "Law enforcement has been much better at finding extremists before they cross the line into criminal activity."

Authorities may also be better now at dealing with situations involving extremists. A highly publicized 1996 standoff with a group of Montana "Freemen" ended without bloodshed. "Federal law enforcement has really tried to learn from mistakes it made in the past like Ruby Ridge and Waco," says McAdam.

Whether authorities will continue to be able to stop extremist elements is uncertain, but almost everybody agrees that the militia movement, though weakened, is probably here to stay.

"They'll always be there," Stoner says, "because there will always be people like that."