When the colonies began their war for independence in 1775, they had no formal army, but depended on civilian irregulars or “minutemen.” In a similar way, the American Insurgency was made up of ordinary citizens, self-taught and self-trained, who had prepared themselves for the coming conflict and were ready to take up arms at a minute’s notice.
To truly understand the roots of the insurgency, one must first understand the cultural differences between the coastal regions and the interior. In the early 21st century, the West Coast and the Northeast Corridor were so different from the South, Midwest, and Intermountain West as to almost be separate countries. Profound differences existed not only in politics, but in religiosity, cuisine, hospitality, family ties, the education system, economic organization, and popular culture.
The interior regions tended to be much more religious than the coasts. They tended to place more importance on traditional family structures. While the interior regions possessed many large and important cities, they tended to be more rural and thus more old-fashioned. People tended to vote more conservative than liberal, even in many of the larger cities. People also tended to be more self-reliant, and were much more likely to own guns.
Prior to the military purges of 2025, most of the United States military came from the South. This region had seceded from the union in 1861 during the first civil war, and a deep sense of Confederate pride and heritage continued to exist even 150 years later. Among these, the most independently minded state was Texas, where many people considered themselves Texans as much as Americans.
The Intermountain West, originally colonized by Mormon pioneers, still possessed a strong pioneer heritage and culture. The Mormons had spread throughout the entire country by this time, but the greatest concentrations were found in Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho. With its strong beliefs in self-reliance, emergency preparedness, and the divinely inspired nature of the American Constitution, the Mormon religious community would play a key role in the coming insurgency.
The Little Collapse of 2008 (or Great Recession as it was called at the time) led to a surge in popular interest for emergency preparedness. This “prepper” subculture especially thrived in the interior regions of the country, which were not as hard-hit as the coasts but were much more independently minded. As a part of this subculture, many people bought firearms and trained in their use, so as to protect themselves and their families.
The Obama years saw a great deal of social upheaval, which the preppers believed to be the beginnings of a general social collapse. This did a lot to fuel the movement. However, it was not the gradual collapse of American society that prompted the greatest alarm, but Obama’s policies.
In 2012, a mentally ill young man named Adam Lanza killed his mother and assaulted a local elementary school with an AR-15 style rifle. This tragedy, known as the Sandy Hook shooting after the name of the school, sparked a national uproar.
The gun control movement at this time was deeply entrenched in both the West Coast and the Northeast Corridor. They immediately exploited the shooting for political purposes, setting a pattern that would be followed in numerous mass shootings to follow. In spite of the fact that Sandy Hook was likely targeted because it was a gun-free zone, calls for “common sense gun legislation,” or in other words a government confiscation of all civilian firearms, began to be openly heard.
Few things polarized the country in the Obama years more than the gun control movement post-Sandy Hook. Fearing a mandatory gun buyback program (which would later be implemented in 2026), Americans bought guns in record numbers. Meanwhile, the gun control movement openly called for a national gun ban, further fueling the counter movement.
“Molon Labe” was the response traditionally issued by the Greeks when the Persians demanded that they surrender their weapons at Thermopylae. Roughly translated at “Come and take them!” this now became the watchword for the pro-gun counter movement. For the first time in modern memory, the prospect of an armed insurrection against Washington was openly discussed.
The first clashes with the federal government occurred in Nevada and Oregon, over a dispute between the Bureau of Land Management and the Bundy family. While most Americans did not support the Bundys, and the standoffs were resolved with relatively little violence, the incidents demonstrated that armed citizens could stand up to federal authorities and force them to compromise or capitulate.
By the time Hillary Clinton was elected president in 2016, a strong pro-gun movement had taken hold in the interior regions of the United States, with an understanding that it might become necessary to defend their rights by force. However, the movement was not formally organized and had no leaders. It was more of a response to the political climate, rather than a movement that actively worked to shape it.
Clinton largely continued most of Obama’s policies, which led to more mass shootings, more homegrown terrorist attacks, more race riots, and more polarization within the gun debate. During this time, leaders began to emerge who would later play a pivotal role in the organization of the American Insurgency.
Among these was a Provo, Utah resident named Scott Bascom. A self-employed contractor and science fiction writer, Scott was one of the first people to foresee the coming civil war. He was remarkably charismatic, even before the war, though by most traditional measures of wealth or status he was completely ordinary.
As the Republican Party disintegrated in the run-up to the 2020 elections, it became increasingly obvious that Clinton would face no serious challenge in her bid for re-election. Her presidency was characterized by the worst corruption since the Gilded Age, with foreign governments openly buying favors. The US Military, sworn to protect the Constitution, began to take steps for a coup.
This ultimately proved unnecessary, as Clinton was impeached shortly after her re-election in 2021. President Kaine was a milquetoast leader who made some concessions to Libertarians and Constitutionalists. However, at the Democratic National Convention of 2024, a dark horse candidate named James Ward seized the nomination in a contested convention and immediately began to consolidate his power.
He uncovered the coup plot and used it as a pretext to sack the military leadership, installing party loyalists in positions of command. He also began to aggressively enforce federal laws that conflicted with state laws, often pitting federal authorities against state authorities. In the memorable Dewey case, he deployed the National Guard to break up a homeschooling ring in Alabama. This led to an armed confrontation, in which the federal troops prevailed.
Perhaps more than any other incident since Sandy Hook, this incited the pro-gun movement to take action and make preparations for war. But there would be very little time to prepare, as in the following year, the Steward vs. California Supreme Court case paved the way for the gun control movement’s endgame. President Ward implemented a mandatory federal gun buyback program at once, hoping to stem the conflict by forcing immediate action.
But the roots of the American Insurgency ran deeper than he’d realized.
The American Insurgency (Index)
Tactical Gadsden Flag taken from The Art of Not Being Governed and published under a CC BY-SA 4.0 License.