Profiles on the
Three Percenters
Right:
The Three Percenters (aka 3%ers, III%ers, or “Threepers”)
are a Patriot movement paramilitary group that pledges
armed resistance against attempts to restrict private gun
ownership.1 Adherents and supporters have been associated
with threats and acts of violence. Like other Patriot
groups, they depict the federal government as tyrannical.
Their name refers to the (disputed) percentage of American
colonialists who took up arms against the British during
the Revolutionary War.
The Three Percenters have a loosely defined membership and
a decentralized organizational structure. Seemingly anyone
can use the label. There are overlapping Three Percenter
organizations, including local, state, and regional
leadership structures that coordinate actions and decisionmaking.
The Three Percenters were co-founded in late 2008 by Mike
Vanderboegh, who was active in 1990s Alabama militia
groups. Vanderboegh has said, “The Three Percent idea, the
movement, the ideal, was designed to be a simple, powerful
concept that could not be infiltrated or subjected to
agents provocateurs like many organizations that I observed
in the constitutional militia movement of the 90s.”2 Along
with the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters are part of a
new wave of Patriot movement groups that are successors to
the militia movement of the 1990s and have had a dramatic
rebirth since the 2008 election of Barack Obama to the
presidency.3
Ideologically, the Three Percenters are similar to the
better-known Oath Keepers, a Patriot movement group of
current and former military, law enforcement, and first
responders. The Oath Keepers claim to “defend the
Constitution,” and interpret this as a commitment to rightwing social and economic views of the kind usually
associated with the John Birch Society. The Oath Keepers
promote conspiracy theories that claim that the United
States is a socialist government intent on disarming the
population so that a foreign government can invade. They
are committed to a libertarian view of private property
that opposes most federal land ownership or restrictions on
private use for environmental or other reasons.4
Where the Oath Keepers are a formally incorporated group
with a board of directors and membership roll, the Three
Percenters are more like a loosely organized social
movement. The Oath Keepers carefully cultivate a public
image of bold but legal resistance against supposed
government tyranny. Consistent with their media-ready
5
image, they claim that they can deny membership to felons.
Those with felony convictions are welcome in the Three
Percenters, who work closely with the Oath Keepers. There
appears to be substantial membership overlap and their most
prominent members appear in public together; for example,
Vanderboegh and Oath Keepers President and Founder Stewart
Rhodes both spoke at a 2015 Salem, Oregon rally against a
law requiring registration of gun sales between private
individuals. This arrangement with the Three Percenters may
afford the Oath Keepers a measure of insulation from public
scrutiny of actions by Three Percenters.
Three Percenter co-founder Vanderboegh is well known for
his violent rhetoric. In 2010, he called for breaking the
windows of Democratic Party offices, and a slew of such
attacks followed. He called for armed resistance to
Obamacare and has published personal information about the
families of legislators who voted for gun control
measures.6 At the 2015 Salem, Oregon rally against state
gun control legislation, he threatened “civil war” (as he
did at the Bundy Ranch) as a response to the new laws. He
also called Oregon Governor Kate Brown and others in the
state government “tyrants” and “domestic enemies of the
Constitution,” before saying, “this country has long had a
remedy for tyrants—a second amendment remedy. So be careful
for what you wish for, Madam—you may get it.”7
The Three Percenters have shown up at almost all of the
major Patriot movement standoffs and armed camps in recent
years, including the Bundy Ranch confrontation with Bureau
of Land Management (BLM) agents in Nevada in April 2014; a
Josephine County, Oregon dispute between miners and the BLM
in April 2015; and a Lincoln, Montana dispute between
miners and the BLM and Forest Service in July 2015. In
Idaho, they have mobilized religious hatred and xenophobic
hostility, organizing public rallies against Syrian refugee
resettlement.8 The Idaho Three Percenters’ organizing has
inspired similar actions in California. Supporters also
tried to build a “citadel” in rural Benewah County in the
Idaho panhandle.9
Numerous arrests of Three Percenters and those who have
shown affinity with them have been documented. Allen
“Lance” Scarsella, who was arrested in connection with the
shooting of five people at a Black Lives Matter
demonstration in Minneapolis in November 2015, showed an
affinity for the Three Percenters.10 So did Jerad Miller,
who was at the Bundy Ranch before he and his wife, Amanda,
were involved in a June 2014 ambush of police officers and
subsequent shootout that left five dead, including the
Millers. 1 1 Three Percenter Brad Bartelt threatened to
detonate a homemade explosive on Arkansas State
University’s campus in December 201512. Brandon D. Gibbs,
who was heavily armed and armored when police arrested him
in December 2014 for threatening a city official, also had
shown an affinity for the Three Percenters.13 And in 2011,
Frederick Thomas was arrested in Georgia as a member of a
militia group, which “planned to attack cities including
Atlanta with deadly ricin, bomb federal buildings and
murder law enforcement officials and others.”14 Thomas was
allegedly inspired by Vanderboegh’s online novel Absolved;
it describes a future confrontation where activists with
Patriot movement views have a shootout with law enforcement
and plan to murder government officials.15
Related Patriot Movement Profiles:
Oath Keepers
Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association
(CSPOA)
CITATIONS
[1] Co-founder Mike Vanderboegh described the concept this
way in 2009: “The Three Percent today are gun owners who
will not disarm, will not compromise and will no longer
back up at the passage of the next gun control act. Three
Percenters say quite explicitly that we will not obey any
further circumscription of our traditional liberties and
will defend ourselves if attacked. We intend to maintain
our God-given natural rights to liberty and property, and
that means most especially the right to keep and bear arms.
Thus, we are committed to the restoration of the Founders’
Republic, and are willing to fight, die and, if forced by
any would-be oppressor, to kill in the defense of ourselves
and the Constitution that we all took an oath to uphold
against enemies foreign and domestic.” Mike Vanderboegh,
“What is a ‘Three Percenter’?,” February 17, 2009,
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-isthree-percenter.html.
[2] Mike Vanderboegh, “A Brief Three Percent Catechism — A
discipline not for the faint-hearted,” June 29, 2014,
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-briefthree-percent-catechism.html.
[3] Mark Potok, “The ‘Patriot’ Movement Explodes,” March 1,
2012,
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report
/2012/patriot-movement-explodes.
[4] Rachel
Keepers,”
Tabachnick, “Profile
April
on the
23,
Right:
Oath
2015,
www.politicalresearch.org/2015/04/23/profile-on-the-right-o
athkeepers.
[5] See Article VIII, Section 8.01 in the “Bylaws of Oath
Keepers,”
accessed
December
31,
2015,
https://www.oathkeepers.org/bylaws.
[6] “Michael Brian Vanderboegh,” accessed December 31,
2015,
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ind
ividual/michael-brian-vanderboegh-0; see also David
Neiwert, “Antigovernment Speakers Denounce Washington State
Gun Law, Threaten Violent Revolt,” December 17, 2014,
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2014/12/17/antigovernme
nt-speakers-denounce-washington-state-gun-law-threatenviolent-revolt.
[7] Devin Burghart of Institute for Research and Education
on Human Rights pointed this part of the speech out. “We
Will Not Comply Rally – Salem, Oregon – May 30, 2015,”
uploaded
July
3,
2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDD7GZJLSkE. Vanderboegh’s
“civil war” comment is around 57:15, and comments on Brown
around 1:04:40; for his Bundy Ranch speech, see Miranda
Blue, “Bundy Ranch Speaker Warns Of ‘Civil War On A Vast
Scale,’ Promises Harry Reid Will Have His ‘Balls Ripped
Off’,” April 30, 2014,
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bundy-ranch-speaker-w
arns-civil-war-vast-scale-promises-harry-reid-will-havehis-balls-rippe.
[8] David Neiwert, “‘III Percenters’ Ride Wave of
Islamophobia in Idaho to Lead Anti-Refugee Protests,”
November
4,
2015,
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2015/11/04/%E2%80%98iii
-percenters%E2%80%99-ride-wave-islamophobia-idaho-leadanti-refugee-protests.
[9] Bill Morlin, “Behind the Walls,” May 16, 2015,
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report
/2013/behind-walls.
[10] Sarah Kaplan, “Minn. man accused in Black Lives Matter
shootings reportedly subscribed to ‘sovereign citizen’
subculture,”
December
1,
2015,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/12/
01/minn-man-accused-of-shooting-black-lives-matterprotesters-reportedly-subscribed-to-sovereign-citizensubculture/.
[11] Mark Potok, “Alleged Las Vegas Cop-Killers in
‘Patriot’ Movement, Warned of ‘Sacrifices’,” June 9, 2014,
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2014/06/09/alleged-lasvegas-cop-killers-‘patriot’-movement-warned-‘sacrifices’.
[12] Arturo Garcia, “Alleged Arkansas State gunman was
investigated for saying he was ‘suicidal and homicidal’
online,”
December
10,
2015, http://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/alleged-arkansas-sta
te-gunman-was-investigated-for-saying-he-was-suicidal-andhomicidal-online/
[13] “Apparent Extremist Threatens Police Officers and a
City
Employee,”
December
17,
2014,
http://blog.adl.org/extremism/apparent-extremist-threatenspolice-officers-and-a-city-employee.
[14] Mark Potok, “Georgia Militiamen Arrested in Major
Domestic
Terror
Plot,”
November
2,
2011,
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2011/11/02/georgia-mili
tiamen-arrested-major-domestic-terror-plot.
[15] “Michael Brian Vanderboegh,” accessed December 31,
2015,
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ind
ividual/michael-brian-vanderboegh-0.