Montana Freeman Standoff of 1996

On March 25, 1996, the armed anti-government militia group known as the Montana Freeman started an 81-day standoff against federal agents. This group was led by a man named Leroy Schweitzer, and his militia group was a right-wing extremist group that did not have any faith in government bodies that acted above the county level. 

This group had earlier held up a courthouse in 1994 for over two hours and put up a one-million-dollar bounty for government officials without any federal response. Finally, the FBI decided to action.

With the disasters of Waco and Ruby Ridge still looming, the Montana Freeman situation was setting up to another long, bloody struggle. The armed members of the Montana Freeman began to collect together in their compound, seemingly setting up for isolation. The standoff itself began when Leroy and a few other militants were lured out of the compound by an undercover FBI agent and arrested on the basis of refusing to leave an evicted property. This sparked a three-month long confrontation, but one with different results from Waco and Ruby Ridge that also had deeper implications for the future of confrontation protocol. The FBI had decided to play it safe and try to take time and use caution, which paid off when the rest of the militiamen surrendered in June. The cautious and peaceful approach the FBI used in this event was implemented from that point on, and was even used in the Oregon Wildlife Refuge standoff in 2016.