Three Percenters: What is the gun-toting group? And what do its supporters want?
Up to 500 protestors from a group known as "The Three Percenters" may descend Saturday upon the Virginia headquarters of Nexus Services, a group that provides GPS tracking to let detained immigrants be released.
And while a local Augusta County sheriff said he heard "protesters will be those who affiliate with militia groups," questions remain. Such as: What are the Three Percenters?
It's a diffuse, bottom-up militia, according to a Politico profile, with the group itself claiming inspiration from the "rough estimate" that only 3% of American colonists took up arms against the British forces. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, calls Three Percenters an "anti-government" group with chapters claimed nationwide.
A statement explaining the movement claims it's "not a militia" and "not anti-government," but exists to "to reign in an overreaching government and push back against tyranny."
The group began in 2008, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which monitors extremist movements, and remains loosely organized, though a Vice News report claimed it counts 10,000 members nationwide.
Those identifying with the group in the past year have both denounced racism and tried to blow up a building.
More:Possible weekend protest near Charlottesville, Virginia, sparks worry
What do they believe?
The group's decentralized nature makes it "more of a way of life than a club to join," according to a website set up for the group, which claims Three Percenters are pro-government as long as those in government abide by the Constitution: "We do not seek to incite a revolution."
Posts on the group's most visible Facebook page consist of mostly pro-gun rights memes, though links and re-posts of anti-liberal content exists.
An "About Us" section describes the group as "the last defense to protect the citizens of the United States if there ever comes a day when our government takes up arms against the American people."
So what have Three Percenters done?
An Aug. 12 statement citing the group's "National Council" issued a "stand down order" to members engaged in the violent protests following a deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Va., claiming "we will not align ourselves with any type of racist group" and rejecting "anyone who calls themselves a patriot or a Three Percenter" at the events.
The day prior, police arrested a man who planned to detonate a bomb-filled van next to an Oklahoma City bank. Jerry Drake Varnell, 23, cited his Three Percenter "ideology" and a desire to "to start the next revolution," according to the Associated Press.
In years prior, Three Percenter groups have protested refugee resettlement in Idaho and arrived in Oregon to back up Ammon Bundy's armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in 2016.
Gun-toting civilians including Three Percenters reportedly began appearing outside Army recruitment centers in 2015 following a shooting at one in Chattanooga, Tenn. The Army warned recruiters to treat them as a security threat.
In 2013, a professed co-founder of the movement criticized a New Jersey police department for disciplining officers wearing Three Percenter patches, according to The Jersey Journal.
Follow Josh Hafner on Twitter: @joshhafner