Bundy Terrorists: 4 Things we learned by these Domestic Terrorists with cowboy hats.

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/267772-4-lessons-from-the-bundys-oregon-misadventure

1. Some ranchers think they have a right to degrade public lands. Cliven Bundy first commandeered the media spotlight by refusing to pay huge sums of grazing fees he owed to the federal government accrued over decades of nonpayment, and by trespassing his cattle on public lands closed to grazing to protect the habitat of the endangered desert tortoise. The armed standoff that ensued outside Mesquite, Nev. is still an unresolved open case.

2. An extremist fringe wants to seize our public lands. The Bundy gang is simply the most militant expression of a political push in the West to take our public lands, which goes so far as to challenge the legality of the federal government to own property on behalf of all Americans. This effort includes laws passed in state legislatures in Utah and Wyoming to study state takeovers of federal public land. And in Congress, the land-grabbers are also pushing legislation to privatize Western public lands. For Americans who enjoy their public lands, from families who camp in national parks to sportsmen and women who hunt and fish on national forests and Bureau of Land Management-administered lands, to Western communities that depend on clean water from public land watersheds, the land-grab efforts of those like Reps. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) and Raúl Labrador (Idaho) pose a direct threat to the rights of all citizens to enjoy our public lands and the clean water they provide. Congress needs to slam the door on this land-grab to safeguard one of America's most prized and unique assets: our public lands.

3. A new mandate has emerged for public lands protection. The Bundys clearly thought they would be welcomed as liberators in eastern Oregon. Instead, they got a chorus of "go home!" from local officials and residents, often expressed in more colorful (and less charitable) terms. And nationwide, the Twitterverse lit up with jeers of "#YallQaeda" and "#VanillaISIS." Americans in general, and Westerners in particular, love our public lands and don't want to see them turned over to county authorities, state governments or sold off to become private property.

4. The rule of law must be evenly applied. The Bundys and their followers violated the law with an armed takeover of a national wildlife refuge, and faced nationwide condemnation as a result. Now they must be held accountable under the rule of law.

Law enforcement agencies also should pause to reflect. Law enforcement is swift and decisive when it comes to armed threats from Muslims, and far too often for unarmed members of racial minorities. Law enforcement agencies were slow to respond to the illegal actions of the Bundy cabal. This apparent difference in enforcement fuels the nationwide perception of racial and religious bias in law enforcement. Our nation has a long and painful history of leniency for armed militants with white skin: compare federal crackdowns against the Black Panthers and the American Indian Movement with the lack of accountability historically enjoyed by neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. If federal law enforcement had acted decisively to arraign the perpetrators after the Mesquite, Nev. standoff in 2014, the Bundys would have been in prison, the Oregon incident would never have come to pass and LaVoy Finicum, former spokesman for the militants, would still be alive.

The Bundys' illegal takeover of a national wildlife refuge shines a spotlight on some of the West's thorniest problems. But if as a nation we can learn the lessons and take the appropriate corrective action, we can emerge from it stronger, with a healthier and more vibrant West, complete with the crown jewels of our shared public lands.