Nevada Standoff: On the Edge of Martial Law

Federal government overreach has risen to a new high with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) surrounding the ranch of Cliven Bundy of Nevada.

About 200 federal officers had Bundy and his family in their sights, and rounded up his cattle. This government overreach was ostentatiously based on a desire to protect the desert tortoise, a supposed endangered species.

The fight that reached its climax in the weekend started twenty years ago, when the BLM designated 600,000 acres of Bundy’s ranch as federal lands. While land ownership for ranches has historically been a little vague, Bundy’s family has had the rights to this land for over 100 years. In fact, they were ranching on it long before the BLM came into existence.

While the BLM seized the ranchland, they allowed Bundy to continue using it, as long as he paid a “maintenance fee” to defray costs of maintaining roads and other infrastructure in the land. When the government stopped the maintenance, Bundy did it himself; using the money he would otherwise have paid the government. He offered to pay that money to the county that his ranch is in, just to keep everything legal. He has battled against the BLM for twenty years, in order to keep his family ranch intact.

The current round of troubles started with a lawsuit form one of the environmental groups, stating that ranching operations were dangerous to the endangered desert tortoise. There are several problems with that argument. First of all, cattle don’t harm the tortoise population in any way.

Secondly, Bundy has spent his own money to preserve the tortoises. But the big problem is that the same BLM which is attacking his family for those tortoises has been killing them off, because there were too many for the BLM to take care of. What hypocrisy!

This is clearly nothing more than the federal government trying to steal land. Why they want to steal the land is up for debate; but fracking and other mineral rights have been demonstrated to be possible reasons. Numerous exploratory wells have been drilled in the area under dispute, lending credence to these claims.

It can be fairly argued that Bundy has broken the law, by refusing to remove his cattle from land that has been in his family for over a century, as well as refusing to pay the BLM for use of that land.

Even so, if it were determined in court that he was breaking the law, that would be no justification for sending 200 armed agents to take his ranch under siege with sniper rifles, machine guns and armed helicopters.The government forces arrayed at the Bundy ranch look like they came for a fight, not to uphold the law.

In an effort to keep their actions under wraps, government agents have established a “first amendment area” in conjunction with the action being taken at the Bundy ranch. This enclosed area is several miles from the ranch and any of the activity that is happening.

Supposedly, anyone who desires to protest the actions being taken by the government is free to do so… as long as they do it in that cordoned off area.

That implies that the 1^st Amendment rights of Americans have been suspended in all other areas, something that the BLM has no right to do. This looks like martial law, whether they want to officially declared it as such or not. The government is taking away our rights, without any legal justification.

On weekend, Bundy ranch protesters forced federal forces to stand down, but the invasion is not over yet.

Video first seen on Info Wars.

This case concerns us all, as it is clearly another expansion of government authority, taken by the Obama administration, without legislation allowing them to do so. Like the other recent examples of abuse of authority which we are seeing this administration take, it is a small step to take us closer to becoming a police state.

Once more, government agents with guns were telling law-abiding citizens that they couldn’t do something which the Constitution specifically gave us the right to do.

Could this turn into the next “shot heard round the world” at some point? Unless government agents back off for good, it just might. With the current political situation in our country and the tyranny we see coming out of Washington every day, there are many who are saying it is time for a second American revolution.

Thomas Jefferson wrote about this, stating that revolution is necessary to clean out the government. Should this situation escalate to violence, we might just see a housecleaning.

This article has been written by Bill White for Survivopedia.