Greetings, MW reader! (And happy Halloween if you’re reading this on post date!) Here’s a brief bimonthly covering September and October 2025 news on militia activity in the US. Some key stories include:
- Kirk fallout on NC campus leads to threats, panic, lockdown
- Militia leaders (and some members) show in public, face pushback
- Court developments arraign alleged militia-adjacent bomb maker, slow efforts by New York official to make personal militia
If you’d like to go back a couple of months, here’s the Monthly covering August 2025:
UNCW Kirk-Militia Fiasco
In the wake of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, many of those speaking out against Kirk’s legacy have been met with days — if not weeks — of networked harassment online, at their homes, and at their places of work. On the campus of UNC Wilmington (UNCW), a situation involving engagement at an on-campus free speech rock led to a deluge of hateful and threatening messages, changes to on-campus policy around the rock, and even rumors that a militia was stalking the halls of the campus.
Here’s a brief timeline of what happened at UNCW:
- September 10: Gunman shoots Charlie Kirk in the neck on campus at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, killing him on the spot. Tyler James Robin surrendered himself to the local sheriff the following day, claiming he was the one who shot Kirk.
- September 14: a right-wing influencer posted a video accusing a student on UNCW campus of defacing a Kirk tribute painted on the on-campus “spirit rock”, a rock where students are allowed to freely paint messages and images. LibsOfTikTok amplified this footage, leading to the students’ public identification by name (as well as several doxes containing sensitive information about the UNCW students).
- September 16: a seemingly inauthentic account posted on Twitter that their “nc group militia” would be on campus three days later. The poster also claimed to have the schedules of over a dozen students and a handful of teachers, adding “We will take care of the problem.” The account posted similar claims about Oberlin.
- September 18: UNCW sent out an on-campus alert, parts of campus lockdown, and many professors canceled on-campus classes through the weekend (UNCW would officially cancel classes the following day). Later that evening, videos (and screenshots of the videos) circulated, seemingly showing someone carrying a rifle through a parking garage. Campus members and community members alike misattributed this footage to be on campus at UNCW, and campus police, working with agencies up to the FBI, together swept portions of campus while students sheltered in place.
Militia (and Leader) Appearances
On October 28, members of the Cottonwood Militia, led by Dan Scoville, showed up in t-shirts and jeans to “[check] things out” at a protest of about 100 people outside of the County Administration Offices building in Redding, California. At the tame protest, protesters were calling for Shasta County Supervisor Kevin Crye to change his point of view on a behavioral health project in the county. Scoville and his comrades didn’t show up carrying rifles and appear to have kept to themselves. They declined to say they were ‘providing security’ at the event, but stood between the protesters and the office building itself.
Oath Keeper founder Stewart Rhodes, who has been on a campaign of speaking events mostly in front of medium-sized crowds at churches and has been pushing for a ‘restart’ of the Oath Keepers, faced some pushback on some of his recent church appearances. In Elgin, Illinois, Rhodes spoke at Greater Grace Community Church after three other churches cancelled allowing him to speak. The speaking event was organized by the Three Headed Eagle Alliance, a not-for-profit business entity founded by Geneva resident Sue Dixon a little over two weeks after the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020. Dixon is also the chair of the Geneva Township Republicans in Kane County, thus providing another case example of the overlap between establishment conservative organizations and extremist Patriot Movement elements.
On September 2, Michael Meyer, the leader of Veterans on Patrol (VOP), spoke at a meeting of the Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners in Green River, Wyoming. Meyer described himself at the meeting as both an investigative journalist and Sweetwater County resident before launching into a tirade about chemtrails.
On October 18, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio attended Miami’s anti-Trump “No Kings” protest, livestreaming his interactions with protesters at the protest of around 4000. Miami police escorted Tarrio and a second Proud Boy from the crowd after protesters shouted at them for being “pedophile defenders”, but no other incidents were reported. Tarrio took a similar approach at another No Kings Day protest in June, to the same effect. The Proud Boys and the majority of the militia fold have only reported a low level of activity this year, which Ali Breland explains in an article in The Atlantic as partially because of a belief that the Trump administration is doing the work that these groups wanted to happen.
Other Legal Updates
On October 29, New York Supreme Court Justice Gary M. Carlton threw out Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s counterclaim that legislators Debra Mule and Scott Davis tried to retaliate against him for exercising his right to free speech as a citizen. Blakeman has been in legal limbo over his attempt to start a county militia comprised of “special deputies” in New York state.
On September 24, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida arraigned unhoused Coral Springs resident Harun Abdul-Hamid Yener on an indictment that he planned to attack the US Stock Exchange with an explosive device, threatened to murder federal officers, and possessed child sexual abuse material. In October 2024, Yener told his plans to a federal informant who was posing as a member of a militia group, leading to his arrest in November 2024.