History depicts pre-Revolutionary War militants as heroes, but such groups are unhealthy for today's society, claim those who watch the nation's fringe group activities.

The militias and the patriot movements of today are far different from the Fife and Drum Revolutionary freedom fighters, according to Richard Beeman, a University of Pennsylvania history professor whose specialty is in American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution.

Beeman presents numerous speeches throughout the U.S. on the Revolutionary Era but claims he's not an expert on the militias.

Still, he has his opinions.

Thomas Jefferson wasn1t that upset with the active militias in 1786 which were trying to change government policy, Beeman said.

"Jefferson believed these militias were sometimes a medicine necessary for the health of a free society," Beeman said.

But bitter medicine today.

Jefferson probably would have considered stockpiling AK-47s and explosives extreme, the Ivy League professor said.

He said today's militias also like to say how Jefferson was a vibrant supporter of the Second Amendment -- the right to bear arms.

What these groups don't understand, he said, is that Jefferson was a strong supporter in the people's right to vote, peaceably assemble and petition their government.

Jefferson was afraid of large governments and believed it was best to err on the side of less government involvement with people's lives, Beeman said.

That could explain why many of today's militias believe in Jefferson's ideals and like to consider themselves American patriots, Beeman said.

Today, some of the militias are overly exclusive and exercise fear and hatred rather than hope and optimism, he said.

Beeman said he thinks members of militias have given up on the system too soon.

Today's anti-government groups are just misguided people who use force to get their points across, said Harry Fritz, a University of Montana history professor and the department chairman in Missoula, Mont.

The earlier anti-government groups including the pre-Revoluntionary militias simply sought to change the way things were in society during their times, Fritz said.

"They raised a little force, chased a few tax collectors out of town but they never had any big battles," he said.

Ken Toole, executive director of the Montana Human Rights Network in Helena, Mont., said any anti-government group that steps outside of the law is bad for society.

"We have one of the best political processes with many ways to get involved," Toole said. "Those anti-government groups that say "Oh, the heck with it all impose a real problem to the rest of society."

Problems arise when these anti-government groups try to pass bad checks or solve their problems through violent means, Toole said.

Joe Roy, the Klanwatch director with the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center, said the first clue to following an anti-government group is to understand what the movement is about.

Most anti-government groups' members are harmless, he said.

"About 90 percent of them wouldn't do anything," Roy said. "But the underbelly, the remaining 10 percent, is the problem and will try to solve their problems with violence.

"Most of the people in these anti-government groups are looking for a way to vent their frustrations with the government."

There seems to be an idea across the country that the government and the people are two separate groups, Toole said.

"From this comes the ideas that the militia is for the people," Toole said.

The average American citizen thinks they can't have an effect on the federal government, Toole said.

"They feel they are no longer a part of the government," he said. "But what it boils down to is a lot of whining. These people sit there and whine or complain about the government without getting involved."

Anti-government groups all exist by trying to drive a wedge between the general public and the local government, Toole said. But public support for the militias across the country has dropped off since the Oklahoma City bombing.

A few people died in the Revolutionary rebellion skirmishes, Fritz said, but hundreds of innocent bystanders weren't killed to make a statement like the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

"I think these anti-government groups today are still a tiny minority," he said. "But they have been reaching a lot more people through the Internet."

Members of anti-government groups have rights that sometimes need to be defended, according to Scott Crichton, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union Montana office in Helena.

"We have a tendency to defend these groups," Crichton said.

The very foundation of American society was founded by an anti-government group, Crichton said.

"We got a Bill of Rights out of an anti-government group," said Crichton, referring to the revolutionary patriots that defeated the English.

The abolishment of slavery and other significant social changes came from anti-government movements, Crichton said.

These groups, as do all people in this country, have a right to free speech, Roy said.

But some of these groups start amassing weapons, hold training sessions and begin to start living out their fantasies of overthrowing the federal government, Roy said.

"Many of these groups believe the Bible and God have directed them to carry out these fantasies," Roy said.

The best way to handle the illegal activity of anti-government groups is to treat them like everyone else, Toole said. The lawbreakers should be ticketed the first time around and, if the illegal activity continues, arrest the members and take them to jail, he said.

Toole said he was disappointed with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's decision to wait out the Freemen group holed up on a small farming complex in Central Montana.

"If they break the law, don't give them a wide berth ... just arrest them," Toole said.

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