“I denounce the Oath Keepers and all they represent,” Stephenson County Sheriff Steve Stovall declared in a statement quoted in 2023 in an article on AmmoLand News. Such an unequivocal condemnation makes fair the question, “Does he know what they represent?”
If one relies on traditional media and government sources, the answer is ubiquitous. They’re “anti-government far-right extremists.” They’re “seditious conspirators.” They’re “domestic terrorists.” They’re “hate-riots.”
It’s hardly a coincidence that the very first hit turned up by a Google search links to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has long smeared Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and Constitutionalists as domestic enemies. Even establishment Republicans like Senators Chuck Grassley and James Lankford recognize SPLC as “an extremely biased and unreliable source that classifies organizations as ‘hate groups’ if they promote traditional conservative values” and have written to the FBI to “stop sourcing investigative information” to them. (And that’s forgetting the group’s numerous scandals – including firing founder Morris Dees after racial discrimination and sexual harassment allegations (!) – while it laughs all the way to the bank and its currently problematic position of desperately trying to rewrite its accusation that Israeli forces “targeted” Palestinian children.)
Let’s look at what Oath Keepers says it represents, and more specifically, what it wouldn’t tolerate from its members as a condition of belonging to the association. Let’s look at the Bylaws, and specifically what it took to be disqualified (that and many of the links going forward are only still available via the Internet Archive and may load slowly):
Section 8.02. Restrictions on Membership:
(a) No person who advocates, or has been or is a member, or associated with, any organization, formal or informal, that advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States or the violation of the Constitution thereof, shall be entitled to be a member or associate member.
(b) No person who advocates, or has been or is a member, or associated with, any organization, formal or informal, that advocates discrimination, violence, or hatred toward any person based upon their race, nationality, creed, or color, shall be entitled to be a member or associate member.
So much for being “anti-government.” And so much for being hate-riots.
That’s what they were against. What were they for?
Oath Keepers is a non-partisan association of current and formerly serving military, police, and first responders, who pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to “defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” That oath, mandated by Article VI of the Constitution itself, is to the Constitution, not to the politicians, and Oath Keepers declare that they will not obey unconstitutional orders, such as orders to disarm the American people, to conduct warrantless searches, or to detain Americans as “enemy combatants” in violation of their ancient right to jury trial. See the Oath Keepers Declaration of Orders We Will Not Obey for details.
1. We will NOT obey any order to disarm the American people.
2. We will NOT obey any order to conduct warrantless searches of the American people, their homes, vehicles, papers, or effects – such as warrantless house-to house searches for weapons or persons.
3. We will NOT obey any order to detain American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” or to subject them to trial by military tribunal.
4. We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a “state of emergency” on a state, or to enter with force into a state, without the express consent and invitation of that state’s legislature and governor.
5. We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty and declares the national government to be in violation of the compact by which that state entered the Union.
6. We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.
7. We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.
8. We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to “maintain control” during any emergency, or under any other pretext. We will consider such use of foreign troops against our people to be an invasion and an act of war.
9. We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies, under any emergency pretext whatsoever.
10. We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.
Every one of these orders has either been issued and followed in real life or proposed by those in power. Think back to Hurricane Katrina gun confiscations or American citizens of Japanese heritage interned in WWII. And who can say with certainty what steps a desperate government would take to control its population in the name of pandemic control (as much as the media tries to deny or make excuses for “11 military facilities … approved as [Covid-19] quarantine bases”), or if the world plunges into a wider war emerging from the Israel/Hamas conflict?
As Oath Keepers explained, lawful orders must be “‘according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.’ Any order, by anyone, that is not constitutional or according to regulations, is unlawful, and military personnel are not obligated to follow such orders – and, in fact, are obligated to refuse.”
“I was just following orders” was not accepted as a mitigating excuse for Nazi war crimes at the Nuremberg trials, and those found guilty were hanged.
So, when Sheriff Stovall (or any law enforcement officer or politician) says he “denounces the Oath Keepers and all they represent,” he’s in effect saying these are orders he would obey and expect men he deploys to obey without hesitation or question. My guess is he’s probably never thought of it that way, and just wanted to distance a deputy he supports from the career-threatening association of having joined Oath Keepers before it imploded.
But there are others in power who know perfectly well what the implications of “10 orders we will not obey” are, and that’s something they cannot allow to be considered. That it could spread scares the hell out of them, no doubt because there are some orders in Oath Keepers’ list they retain the power to issue when it suits their purposes. So, any thought of disobeying them must be destroyed – along with anyone daring to spread the idea that the oath is to the Constitution, not to a regime and its unlawful orders.
In the final installment, Part Three, we’ll look at what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, why the insiders felt compelled to mete out ruthless punishments, and at the tribulations of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes – including why I stopped dealing with him and writing for them. And I’ll introduce you to a book that lays it all out in great detail, one written by a man who was there from the beginning and who saw it all.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
