Sorry pal, time for you to crawl back into your hole.
A few days ago, the situation described in this story seemed headed for another Bundy-style train wreck. An Oregon miner on Federal land had asked the local chapter of the Oath Keepers to defend his mining operation. Those good folks promptly put out a call for any and all "true Militia, true III%, Oathkeeper etc." to come armed and ready to blow the heads off anyone with the Federal Government who dared to enforce a notice which the BLM had sent demand the mining operation shut down because it lacked the "necessary paperwork."
This resulted in a massive brouhaha in the rightwingnutosphere. Folks even posted YouTube videos of themselves as they drove to Oregon support this noble cause.
In light of all this commotion and excitement, the mine operator had a change of heart and decided that having a bunch of wild-eyed gun crazy fools defending his "constitutional rights" might not be the best way to proceed in his dispute with the BLM. Indeed, he's called of them off. Now all he wants his his day in court.
A man who owns a gold-mining claim on federal land in southwestern Oregon asked for help defending it after U.S. authorities ordered him to stop work, but he is now telling his armed supporters to back off.
Rick Barclay said Thursday that he hoped to prevent his fight with federal regulators from turning into the kind of high-profile standoff at a Nevada ranch last year.
It seems the mine operator had a panic attack and feared the BLM was going to seize equipment at the site of his cold mining operation, which was when he made the mistake of getting the Oath Keepers involved. The BLM and his lawyer then had a chat, however, and informed Mr. Barclay that no one from the government intended to seize his property until he had a chance to appeal its action in the federal courts. Mr. barclay, apparently on the advice of his lawyer, decided to take his chances in the court. He says he has a valid claim to the surface rights of the land on which his mine is located that supersedes the authority of the BLM.
Meanwhile, more and more kooks with guns kept showing up, and Mr. Barclay decided he wasn't prepared to host a circus full of heavily armed idiots just itching for a another confrontation with Big Guvmint. Especially since the BLM is now receiving threatening phone calls, and a unknown number of domestic terrorists a/k/a "activists" are patrolling his mine site and continue to have arrive at a staging area nearby.
Now, Barclay is telling his supporters that the mine is not under attack, posts online by "keyboard warriors" have gotten out of hand and he was not interested in a repeat of the Cliven Bundy ranch standoff.
"We are not looking for Bundyville. We are not looking to challenge anything. We are just holding our constitutional rights and property rights in reserve until we get our day in court," Barclay said.
Of course, convincing these folks to leave after they come bearing arms in defense of someone in a legal dispute with the "evil" feds may not be as easy as he hopes. For the time being, though, the local sheriff, Dave Daniel, is trying to keep things calm, stating that "he has no plans to send patrols to the area." Obviously he doesn't wish a repeat of a scene such as this one that occurred last year at the height of the Bundy Ranch standoff:
Approximately 30 Metro officers stood between a crowd of 400 heavily armed, self- described militia and the federal employees who had gathered a few hundred head of Bundy's cattle. As the crowd swelled and tempers flared, many in the crowd tried to goad the police, hurling taunts and insults.
"They had no respect for authority. Everything that you can think of to call a human being, animals, everything," Jenkins said.
One person in the crowd even asked Jenkins if he was ready to die.
"I don't know his name. He was wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey. I'll never forget that," he said. [...]
Shuttling back and forth between the Bundy forces and BLM was Assistant Sheriff Joe Lombardo, who'd been left in charge by Sheriff Doug Gillespie. He was trying to keep everyone calm. [...]
"It was a scary point in itself. They were in my face yelling profanities and pointing weapons. The Bundy son himself, that I was negotiating with, Dave, he did not do that, but all the associated people around him did do that," Lombardo said.
But this time, the Oath Keepers assure us they are "not trying to confront the Bureau of Land Management, and ... vetting everyone who showed up." Right. I believe that, don't you? Mr. Barclay, maybe you should go have a chat with these eager beaver boy scouts whose help you requested. Because
merely talking to the press might not do the trick.
The co-owner of a Josephine County mining claim at the center of a land-use dispute with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management says an armed security presence by members of the Oath Keepers movement has "taken on a life of its own," and he is pleading for calm after supporters apparently phoned in threats to BLM employees.
"We don't need any more volunteers, we're not under attack, this is not the Bundy Ranch," said Sugar Pine Mine co-owner Rick Barclay. "Please stop calling the BLM and threatening their personnel."
Hey, you started this sh#tstorm, Mr. Barclay. Why don't you go and talk to your "militia friends" in person and ask them politely to leave?