This story was reported and written by VPM News.
FISHERSVILLE — At a gun show in Augusta County earlier this year, Paul Voska said he had laid the groundwork to start a militia.
Decked out in military fatigues and sporting a short white mohawk, the Air Force veteran and lifelong gun owner stressed his determination to protect his community.
“Let’s just say — and this has happened — you have a police department that is corrupt and you have a local government that’s corrupt. The militia being on the right side of the community, Constitution and established laws in this country would present a force or intimidation like, 'Hey, listen, this ain't right. Knock it off, '” said Voska, who was surrounded by AR-15 semi-automatic rifles.
Voska described his future militia group as a liaison between the city council, police departments and people. He said he planned to write and adhere to bylaws and recruit “outstanding citizens” to serve alongside the Virginia National Guard and law enforcement as a stopgap against “the evils of the world.”
Outside of that, Voska said his militia would benefit the community by getting involved with local government, fundraisers and feeding the unhoused.
“It’s just a bunch of guys who want to have their neighborhoods safe,” Voska said.
Regardless of participants’ intentions, paramilitary and policy experts said militias are illegal in the United States. Yet, armed groups remain active in Virginia and other states — and new ones, like Voska’s, are still being formed. Private militia members often mistrust the federal government, cooperate with local law enforcement and defend their activities as legitimate.
However, experts VPM News interviewed warned that the existence of militias threatens democracy by intimidating or influencing citizens and government officials.
“The very fact that they're armed and they're kind of organized can put the weight on the scales in politics and business, without ever having any connection to what the people want,” said Carolyn Gallaher, an American University professor who studies paramilitary movements around the globe.
Jacob Glick, senior policy counsel at the Georgetown Law Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, added that every state has some sort of restriction on paramilitary activity.
“If you have a group that is claiming to be unorganized militia and marching around, assuming the functions of law enforcement, if the governor or the governor’s adjutant general are not supervising them, then that is an unlawful exercise of paramilitary activity,” said Glick, referring to a state’s National Guard leadership — a role appointed by the governor.
Virginia-based militia members VPM News spoke with considered their activities legal and said they had organized primarily to protect themselves and their families from criminals, an overzealous federal government and natural disasters.
“You have to self-rescue. One of my mottos is that ‘nobody’s coming to save you,’ and you need to treat your life like that,” said Preacher, a member of Virginia Kekoas who agreed to only be identified using his callsign.
Members of The Virginia Kekoas, a militia group based mainly in Eastern Virginia, told VPM News that they were formerly affiliated with the Boogaloo movement — but have since moved away from that ideology because of a disagreement with their white supremacy agenda. (The Washington Post reported in April that the group also publicly disavowed a former member, who was later charged in federal court with manufacturing ricin.)
Now, Kekoas members gather once a month on private property to conduct weapons and medical training.
On a humid day in early May, two Kekoas showed off their shooting and first - aid skills. A member of the group's leadership, callsign Sasquatch, sketched on a whiteboard to demonstrate how to bandage bullet wounds depending on the body part — and when to use a tourniquet to stanch blood flow.
“[So , if] somebody shoots me in some scenario that they know how to use my tourniquet to make sure I don’t die or bleed out,” Preacher told trainees who gathered in the woods.
The Kekoas were especially focused on preserving the Second Amendment. To protest gun control, they said , they show up armed every year at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond to lobby state politicians.
“I just met you, and I would trust you more than any person who worked for the federal government — or state or local government, for that matter,” Preacher told VPM News. “And the reason I don’t trust the government is that I know what happens to populations who have been disarmed.”
But Glick, the policy counsel, rejected the common militia claim that individual gun rights are tied to the legitimacy of paramilitary activity.
“We should not accept the false choice between protecting our communities from unlawful vigilante activity and keeping enshrined really important rights — like the right to free association and the right to assemble, the right to bear arms,” Glick said, who previously served as an investigative counsel for the House of Representatives January 6th S elect C ommittee.
The Kekoas, along with other militia groups, have also said they would step in if law enforcement took too long to arrive in the rural areas where most members live.
“What if the police department can’t show up? Or if they won’t show up? What if it’s just us — how do we keep some order?” asked David Stanley, a former militia leader who trained members of the Hanover Patriots in his firearms school.
The Hanover Patriots “set up a neighborhood watch on steroids,” said Trevor, a former militia leader who only agreed to be identified by his first name. Trevor organized the Virginia Mutual Assistance Group, which he said “worked closely” with the Hanover Patriots during the summer 2020 protests in Richmond following George Floyd’s murder.
According to Trevor, the Hanover Patriots patrolled Hanover County during “the riots” and established a relationship with local law enforcement.
The Hanover County Sheriff's Office confirmed its 2020 communications with the Hanover Patriots: It received tip calls from the group, but denied the sheriff’s office ever directed the Hanover Patriots.
'It doesn't make me feel safe'
In addition to the questions about legality, some local residents opposed the idea of having groups like the Hanover Patriots in their communities.
Rachel Levy, chair of the Hanover County Democratic Committee and a Virginia resident for most of her life, confirmed that the Hanover Patriots openly conducted patrols during the summer of 2020 and said they particularly followed Black people.
But since then, she said, “the militia aspect of their group went underground.”
“People were very concerned about having this auxiliary, not democratically controlled or elected, police force,” said Levy, a former public school teacher.
Gallaher, who grew up an hour south of Charlottesville before teaching at American University, also shared concerns about militia policing.
“Militias will always tell you, ‘We are here to help and represent the community.’ But how do I know that?” she asked. “Did I vote for them? Did my mom vote for them? Did they have to go out campaigning? No, they’re an independent armed group and paramilitary. So , they really shouldn’t exist.”
A second Hanover County resident, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, said they objected to local politicians’ connections to the Hanover Patriots.
“It doesn’t make me feel safe,” the resident said. “I worry about our marginalized community and our kids, like our LGBTQ kids, our Black kids.”
At least two Hanover County supervisors have posted on Facebook about their participation in Hanover Patriots meetings.
“Every time I attend a Hanover Patriots meeting I am so blessed to be surrounded by true American (and Hanover County) Patriots,” wrote Supervisors Jeff Stoneman, Beaverdam District, and Danielle Floyd, Chickahominy District, in a joint Facebook post from 2023.
Neither Stoneman nor Floyd could be reached for comment on the post.
'Put the federal and state governments on notice'
Outside of Virginia, select law enforcement officials around the United States have confirmed their willingness to cooperate with armed volunteer groups.
At the Constitutional Sheriffs & Peace Officers Association conference in Las Vegas earlier this year, sheriffs from across the United States said they were willing to work with local militias and expressed support for initiatives like Voska’s in Augusta County.
CSPOA Founder Richard Mack even encouraged county sheriffs to defy federal policies they view as unconstitutional, like COVID-19 social distancing and gun control laws.
“I would like to see the sheriffs unite and put the federal and state governments on notice that they will not tolerate or allow any more gun control aimed at law-abiding citizens,” said Mack, who worked as the elected sheriff of Graham County, Arizona, from 1988 to 1996.
For example, if the federal government required sheriffs to conduct background checks or limit gun ownership, sheriffs should refuse.
Mack’s association includes roughly 250 sheriffs around the U.S. At the conference, he urged current sheriffs and candidates running for county elections to “work with any group that loves America and that wants to utilize creative, effective and peaceful solutions.”
Bob Songer, of Klickitat County, Washington, explained his role would be to protect citizens from the federal and state governments. “The primary duty of a constitutional sheriff above all else is to interpose, intervene when the government is overstepping and violating their rights under the Constitution,” he said.
In his speech during the conference, Songer said he is raising his own group, called a posse. Another sheriff, Dar Leaf, of Barry County, Michigan, described posses as having “the same people as would be in a militia.”
“[Like in] old black-and-white Westerns,” said Leaf, who was found to have close ties with the Michigan Liberty Militia in 2020.
Leaf used his posse members to provide security at football games and wrestling tournaments, maintain peace at county fairs and conduct search-and-rescue operations. Once, he said his posse helped a police officer arrest someone who firebombed a patrol car. Three posse members surrounded the suspect and took him down for the officer to handcuff.
“We call on the militia [when] we need something now, and we have to take care of it now, and then we’ll clean up later,” Leaf said. “But for the most part, the militia people I got in my county, they’ve been zero problem to me.”
Songer works with a posse of 157 deputized members in his county of 23,000 and aims to recruit 200 people in total. Like Leaf, he involves volunteers, who are mostly armed, in activities that in other communities would be carried out by professionals, like courtroom security.
“They are a lifesaver to me,” he said.
Constitutional sheriffs said working with armed groups of volunteers is a legal right granted by their position as law enforcement chiefs. Leaf asserted that he has “broad authority” to direct his posse.
“My job is to maintain the peace in my county and also ferret out all criminal activity. So, I can call upon a posse to do that,” he said.
However, experts expressed concern that cooperation between law enforcement and armed groups could intimidate citizens and lawmakers, and hinder democratic processes, regardless of the group’s legal status. Gallaher, who studies paramilitary movements around the globe, questioned the necessity of posses.
“Groups are being formed in places that don't need 150 extra firefighters, or they don't need 150 extra people to clean up after tornadoes,” she said. “What's this really for?”
'Unlicensed, unlawful and dangerous'
Voska said his proposed militia would represent what people want. A strong supporter of former President Donald Trump, he is convinced that President Joe Biden won in 2020 by “stealing the election .”
That is why, ahead of the November elections, Voska in Augusta County sought advice on forming a militia from Jack Burkett , of the Hanover Patriots . Voska planned to work with local law enforcement and deploy his militia members to protect the community and ensure peace during protests.
“If a militia was called to, say, the starting of a riot, just the presence of armed men is a deterrent,” he said. “When they show up, you have local police, state police, sheriff’s department and 300 armed militia men standing on the streets. What’s gonna happen?”
Gallaher, the AU professor, said she worried the presence of militias would impact politics and the upcoming presidential election. She noted similarities in Trump’s recent campaign messages to his supporters and the “apocalyptic language” he used to rally January 6th demonstrators.
“When I hear a constitutional sheriff in a county of 20,000 is creating a posse of 150, I see that as ‘We’re here if you need us, Donald Trump,’” she said. “The election is, in part, what they’re waiting for.”
Voska, like Gallaher, said the November presidential election could lead to violence. However, he thinks it could come from either end of the political spectrum.
“If Biden wins, it’s automatically going to be assumed he cheated. And there are a lot of people who are on the fringe edge of this. It’s gonna get violent,” he said prior to this weekend's announcement.
The Georgetown Law Institute is working to prevent militia-related violence. Glick and Mary McCord, its executive director, lead the public education effort to guide law enforcement, politicians and community organizations on how to respond to and resist local militia activity and how to utilize anti-paramilitary laws effectively.
“It’s the job of groups around the country and locally to make sure that we are speaking loudly and clearly about what these laws actually mean,” Glick said, “and what paramilitary activity actually is — which is unlicensed, unlawful and dangerous vigilante activity and not constitutionally protected, auxiliary services.”
Editor’s note: VPM News has verified the identities of all anonymized or pseudonymous sources. Questions about this article should be directed to VPM News Director Elliott Robinson and Managing Editor Dawnthea M. Price Lisco.
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