Members of the Georgia Security Force militia rest during a field training exercise
Credit: AFP / Brendan Smialowski

Each month, Chris Hill gets together with friends to spend a few days in a remote forest in Georgia, deep in the heart of the American South.

They trade stories over a campfire, feast on barbecue food — and practice raids with semi-automatic rifles in case the government decides to come for their weapons.

Dressed in combat fatigues and armed with military-grade weapons, the twenty or so members of the “Georgia Security Force” have gathered on a scorching hot weekend to conduct patrols, fire live rounds and carry out an assault on a mock-up house.

“I’m prepared for civil war, civil unrest, EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) attack from North Korea, Russia, invasion from a foreign government, my own government turning its guns against the people in an effort to disarm,” says Hill, a 42-year-old paralegal who prefers the moniker “General Bloodagent” when leading the group he founded in 2008.

His is one of an estimated 165 armed anti-government militias currently operating in […]