By Steve Sebelius |January 5, 2016
There are many reasons why the ongoing armed standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon happened.
Chief among them: the federal government’s inaction since the last standoff with armed insurrectionists, near Bunkerville in 2014.
That’s when notorious rancher Cliven Bundy issued a call for a “range war” after the Bureau of Land Management finally moved in to collect two decades worth of unpaid grazing fees. After self-styled militia types descended on and near Bundy’s ranch, pointing guns at federal officers and Las Vegas police, and at one point closing down an interstate highway, the BLM backed off.