Will Pentagon purge Oath Keepers?
St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner Kurt Hofmann speculates on potential consequences for a group of current and retired military and law enforcement personnel who believe their oath to the Constitution should have bearing on their professional conduct. In today’s column, he asks “Will Pentagon try to crush Oath Keepers?”
The immediate basis for Hofmann’s concern is a report following up on the Fort Hood shootings:
The Pentagon may reconsider rules governing participation in extremist organizations that some lawmakers say appear outdated and too narrow in light of the shooting rampage at the Army base in Texas.
Some have been following attempts to tar Constitutionalists as extremists for years. And some of us have repeated the warnings when we saw renewed smears. We raised concerns when we saw the infamous Department of Homeland Security report single out not just Constitutionalists for special scrutiny, but saw our government issue strident warnings such as:
The possible passage of new restrictions on firearms and the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.
And we have not stood by silently when we saw some try to publicly affiliate Oath Keepers with “white supremacists, anti-Semites, nativists…and a range of other activists of the radical right [that] are cross-pollinating and may even be coalescing.”
The Pentagon is reconsidering affiliation restrictions: Current “rules prohibit membership or participation in ‘organizations that espouse supremacist causes,’ seek to discriminate based on race, religion or other factors or advocate force or violence. Commanders can investigate and can discipline or fire people who ‘actively participate in such groups.’”
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