Chris Arthur, an Iraq War veteran and National Guard member, was advocating for taking up arms against police and government officials in the U.S., warning about a coming civil war. He posted videos on YouTube with titles such as “The End of America or the Next Revolutionary War” and offered training sessions on his farm in North Carolina that taught how to carry out violent attacks. Despite warnings about Arthur’s increasingly violent rhetoric, military and law enforcement agencies did not take action, allowing him to continue to store explosives and train extremists.
Arthur is among more than 480 individuals with military backgrounds accused of ideologically driven extremist crimes from 2017 through 2023, with the majority being veterans. Those with military backgrounds were found to be radicalizing at a faster rate than the overall population, and their plots were more likely to involve weapons training or firearms. The extremist activities of individuals with military experience present a persistent and pressing terror threat to the United States, with over 80% of them identifying with far-right, anti-government, or white supremacist ideologies.
Despite the increasing participation of individuals with military backgrounds in extremist activities, there is no force-wide system in place to track such behavior. The Defense Department developed a method to detect and monitor extremism involving individuals with security clearances, but it was not utilized. A lack of data has been cited as a major challenge in understanding the scope of extremism within the military, despite efforts to address the issue through policy revisions and working groups focused on countering extremist activity.
In a small town in North Carolina, Chris Arthur stockpiled weapons, trained Doberman pinschers as guard dogs, and rigged his farmhouse with improvised explosives. His dangerous activities were reported by concerned individuals, but law enforcement agencies failed to take action. Another individual, Joshua Blessed, traveled to Arthur’s farm to learn about warfare tactics and improvised explosives, eventually leading a high-speed chase and gun battle in upstate New York.
Michael Thompson, acting as an FBI informant under the code name “Buckshot,” recorded conversations with Arthur discussing plans to use hidden improvised explosive devices and booby traps against law enforcement. Arthur was arrested at a gun show in Raleigh and subsequently sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for teaching an FBI informant how to make bombs to kill federal law enforcement officers. Despite specialized military training in explosives and warfare techniques, Arthur remains unrepentant and believes he is a political prisoner caught in a civil war prophecy.
