Militias head to Nev. rancher's standoff with feds: We're not 'afraid to shoot'

Nevada standoff heats ...

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's decades-long battle against the federal government over grazing rights has heated to the point where militia groups have joined in and taken up spots against the feds who've circled his land -- and talk is, they're not afraid to open fire.

A spokesperson for the one of the militia groups said as much to local 8 News Now: I'm not "afraid to shoot," he said.

The tension is tight, to put it mildly.

Margaret Houston, Mr. Bundy's sister and a cancer survivor, said at a town hall gathering this week that the situation "was like a war zone" and that she felt "like I was not in the United States," The Daily Mail reported. And the Las Vegas Review-Journal described it this way: "Serious bloodshed was narrowly avoided," in a story about how dogs were unleashed on a woman who was pregnant while the son the rancher was hit with a taser.

On Tuesday, armed Bureau of Land Management agents stormed Bundy's property, escalating a court dispute that's wound for two decades over the rancher's refusal to pay for grazing fees. Bundy's view is that he owns his property -- that it's been in his family's hands for centuries -- and he doesn't have to pay for his own 900-head of cattle to graze on the 600,000 acre Gold Butte property. The government, meanwhile, says the land belongs to them and agents have swooped and circled, closing off roadway access to the property and flying helicopters overhead the family's home.

Following the agent occupation, one of Bundy's sons, Ammon Bundy, was tasered by a federal official to the point that blood seeped through his shirt, video showed. And Houston, meanwhile, said she was roughed up and man-handled by authorities, telling town hall attendees that she was "hit from the back, it was like a football tackle" and that "they just took me and threw me down to the ground," The Daily Mail reported.

BLM, for its part, says the situation only turned violent when protesters who rallied to the family's defense kicked a K-9 unit officer.

Now militia groups are on the scene, promising to help the Bundy's keep up the fight.

"This is what we do, we provide armed response," said Jim Lordy, with Operation Mutual Aid, to the local broadcast station. "They have guns. We need guns to protect ourselves from the tyrannical government."

Lordy also said "many more" militia groups are coming to the site to join in the Bundy family defense.

"They all tell me they are in the process of mobilizing as we speak," said another member, to the Review-Journal.