It isn’t hard to understand why violent white supremacist and white nationalist groups and far-right militia groups try to recruit people who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces; they like having new members who are well-trained in the use of weapons. And according to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the left-wing media collective Unicorn Riot, roughly one in five new Patriot Front recruits has a military background.

Patriot Front is a White supremacist group that was founded in August 2017 following the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia and is an offshoot of the neo-Nazi group Vanguard America, founded in 2015.

In an article published by The Guardian on February 9, journalist Maya Yang reports that according to “leaked documents published and reviewed” by the SPLC and Unicorn Riot, “some 18 out of the 87 applicants, or 21%, said they were currently or previously affiliated […]