No-guns policy to be enforced at forum over Oregon standoff

An armed group led by Ammon Bundy has been occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge since January 2 to protest federal land use policies.

“This here is the bronze star”, said Bundy.

“These items were protected under lock and key before the illegal occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge”, said Corbett. Counterprotesters have begun to gather on the refuge with signs telling the group to go home.

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is in Harney County, where local, state and federal law enforcement have convened to figure out how to deal with the occupation by the activists opposing federal land policy.

Sewell, on the other hand, shared a video on Facebook that showed him renouncing his contract with the U.S. Forest Service.

Critics of Bundy’s group also attended Saturday’s event, which was held a few hours after a small counter-protest nearby. Bundy has garnered a lot of attention to the dissatisfaction of the ranchers and local townsfolk with federal land-use policies followed by the Western people.

The Burns Paiute Tribe wants federal officials to bar armed activists from traveling back and forth to a national wildlife preserve they are occupying in southeastern OR, fearing tribal artifacts will go missing OR the group will disturb burial grounds.

The FBI is under increasing pressure from Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and others to end the refuge takeover.

Bundy, speaking to The Associated Press late Friday while sitting at a desk inside one of the refuge buildings, dismissed the governor’s request. “It’s just wonderful that she would just disregard the Constitution to the point where she would think it would be OK to give the federal government that authority to come in and take some dynamic action or something like that”.

At community meetings, local residents have asked Bundy and his group to leave.

First, they want the federal government to relinquish control of the wildlife refuge so “people can reclaim their resources”, [Bundy] told CNN [earlier this month].

“What we’re doing is making sure it’s secured as a right”. Sewell said he’s restricted to allowing 85 cattle to graze on his federal allotment, where historically 600 animals have been allowed to graze. Federal prosecutors said the fires were set to hide poaching, while the Hammonds, who turned themselves in earlier this month to start five-year federal prison sentences, maintained the fires were set to protect their property from invasive plants and wildfires.

That’s set through a Congressionally mandated formula.

Sewell, who owns 160 acres, bought his ranch four years ago for about $1 million, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported, adding that it included grazing rights to 33,000 acres of public land.

Bundy’s group plans to open the 300-square-mile OR refuge for cattle this spring.