Militia not shy about its arms Neighbors weren't alarmed By Sam Stanton Sacramento Bee Staff Writer PHOENIX -- Shortly after attorney John Kaites arranged to have breakfast at a pancake house with his opponent for a state Senate seat here, Kaites got a good idea of what type of person Dean Carl Pleasant was. "I sat down and he sat down, and then he pulled out a .45-caliber handgun in a holster from behind his back and laid it on the table," said Kaites, who went on to win the election. "It made me reconsider breakfast. I just had coffee, although it was hard to get service with the gun on the table." As Kaites recounted the tale Tuesday of his 1994 encounter with Pleasant, the incident seemed much more important now that Kaites and the world know that Pleasant allegedly was a member of the "Viper Militia." The militia, a previously unknown group of 12 members, is alleged to have been heavily armed and the maker of homemade bombs that may have been scheduled for use in a series of assaults against federal and other offices in Arizona's capital city. And Pleasant, who won 30 percent of the vote as a Libertarian candidate for the state Senate two years ago, has become the best-known member of the group simply because of his political background. "Instead of limited government, he believes in no government," said Kaites, a Republican. "He doesn't believe the government should be in the business of building highways or regulating drugs or much of what it does. "Other than the fact that he put a gun out on the table, I thought he was a nice guy. But I got a sense that he had a few screws loose." Pleasant, a 27-year-old resident of the west Phoenix suburb of Peoria, is one of ten men and two women arrested Monday in what authorities say was a detailed plot that may have been designed to assault everything from the FBI offices here to the city's top-rated television station. None of the suspects is particularly well-known in the area, other than Pleasant, who was a student and a doughnut maker. None had criminal records, either, officials said, although Pleasant's driver's license record showed numerous violations for speeding, failing to register his car, failing to carry insurance and driving on a suspended license. There are no specific charges that the suspects actually planned to go ahead with attacks on federal buildings or other spots, but the indictments issued against the 12 accuse them of teaching others how to use explosive devices for the purpose of civil disorder. And as federal agents and bomb squad technicians continued to remove items from the home of one suspected militia member, it became clear that the group had been heavily armed with explosive materials and as many as 70 automatic weapons. The search of one suspect's home, that of 50-year-old Gary Bauer of the Phoenix neighborhood known as Sunnyslope, continued into the evening Tuesday. The modest, wood-and-brick house was cordoned off with yellow police tape. A battered, dust-colored Jeep sat in the driveway, alongside a white Oldsmobile sedan. Behind a wooden fence surrounding the tiny back yard, agents could be seen working near two metal sheds. After being evacuated for about four hours Monday night as explosive materials were being taken out of the home, nearby residents recalled their neighbors as extremely private, but well-armed. Often, men driving utility vehicles or sometimes a camouflage-painted truck would pull up to the home in the shadow of Squaw Peak, and many times people came and went late at night. But there was apparently little effort by members to hide their interest in weapons. "I've seen them taking a few guns in and out of there," 46-year-old Jim Whitfill said as he stood on the porch of his home directly across the street from Bauer's home. "My wife and I used to joke about that, that they were probably militia people. "But there are a lot of people in this town who are into war games and stuff, so it didn't ring any bells with us." In fact, the mere presence of guns in Phoenix or anywhere else in Arizona is hardly a cause for concern, many say. The state is filled with gun enthusiasts and individualists who guard their freedoms zealously, and its relaxed gun laws make weapons a common sight here. "You see people carrying guns around here all the time," Whitfill said. "Or you see people with rifles in their trucks." It has always been legal to carry a loaded weapon in Arizona, as long as it is in public view. And the state recently enacted a law that allows individuals to carry concealed weapons as long as they obtain a permit, a routine matter. Federal authorities say this group went far beyond that by stockpiling bomb-making materials and automatic weapons and by conducting training exercises involving weapons, rocket launchers and bombs that were detonated at remote desert training sites. The group also prepared a videotape that apparently was for training and included detailed shots and descriptions of various federal buildings, the Phoenix Police Department headquarters, the Arizona National Guard, a TV station and other facilities. The extent of the detail in the video, as well as the militia's oath to "enter into mortal combat against enemies of the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Militia to carry out this oath, so help me God," led in part to the indictments of the 12 on seven counts each of conspiracy and other counts. But there has been no evidence released yet to indicate there was a timetable for any attacks, and the group's actions may have been in response to various militia suggestions posted on the Internet on how to prepare for what some see as the eventual war to avoid a "One World Government." The members were concerned with the dangers of such an eventuality, documents show, but they also were concerned with detection from the outside. They code-named their explosive powders, which they ground in an electric coffee bean grinder, "guacamole," and talked of trying to "sanitize" their residences from traces of illegal elements. One suspect, 41-year-old Finis Howard Walker of the west Phoenix suburb of Glendale, said at one point that he had tried to "sanitize" his home half a dozen times but that he "didn't feel secure unless (he had) the ability to take out at least part of (his) neighborhood," said a federal affidavit based on the information from an undercover agent who infiltrated the group. The group apparently has existed for two years and its alleged bomb-making materials include the same type used in the Oklahoma City bombing. But federal officials say there is no evidence to link the group to any other militia or terrorist incidents, including the derailment of an Amtrak passenger train last October in Arizona by a group calling itself "Sons of Gestapo." And there are questions among some whether this was a carefully organized conspiracy of violence or a bunch of "cactus killers," who shoot at cacti in the desert.