Bill Fulton answers your questions.

As promised here is FBI informant Bill Fulton's response to your questions.

Courtesy of 2emptynest: First of all, thank you, Mr. Fulton, for doing our country a great service. We need people like you infiltrating these groups to expose these people for what they truly are and many thanks to Gryphen for his forum and his unending search for the truth. My question is a general one - do you think that there is a connection, or any centralized organization, between the militia groups found in various states? Do you think that the current threats of gun control will make them more radical?

Fulton: Have you heard of the internet?  Not to be flip but of course they use social media, just like the rest of us.

And to your second question, yes I do think the talk of increased gun control makes them more radical. No doubt about it.

Courtesy of Deb:  Since the issue of gun control is now front and center of our national debate, I do hope this is one of the questions that you will take and elaborate on. What has been the general consensus among your colleagues and yourself as to what they are hearing or what concerns them if some measure of gun control is passed? What is being discussed in regards to how these militia groups might respond if some gun control laws are passed? Personally, what type of gun control laws, if any, would you like to see pass?

Fulton: In my view again the wrong question is being asked, gun control is a symptom of a much larger issue.

The one thing that nobody seems to be looking at here is that maybe we need to sit down like adults raise the debate a little and have a serious discussion on weather or not the Constitution as written is working anymore. Gun Control is a small part of that. Does the 2nd amendment guarantee a right to own guns I believe yes. Do we need the second amendment anymore is a question that we should be asking, and people much smarter than myself need to be debating.

While were at it we should debate all of it. We are not a country where only rich, educated, white, male, land owners get to vote and hold office anymore. Maybe we need to sit down and figure out if we should allow the country to be run by the document those men produced. I have sworn an oath to defend the Constitution and in no way am I saying we should just toss it away. What I am suggesting is that it may be time for all of us to grow up a little and just deal with it.

I don't know if that's possible since we live in a world where most of our information is spoon fed to us in 30 second sound bites by networks we choose to watch because they agree with our point of view.

As for the second part of your question, I can't really discuss that.

And as to the last, I refer you to the first part of my answer.

Courtesy of Gles:  Thanks for doing this interview, both you and Jesse. Can you discern the difference between a really serious threat as opposed to someone that is a blowhard or is that left up to superiors? I ask this because there may be a time when instincts dictate there is no time to wait for backup. Are you empowered to act?

Fulton: I don't actually identify threats. That is the job of my supervisors, though I can bring them information and leave it up to them to decide if it is actionable.

And yes I am allowed to act in order to defend myself.

Schaeffer Cox explains that just because he's paranoid, doesn't mean everybody's not out to get him.

"I'm sorry you'll have to speak up. The voices in my head are drowning you out."

As many of you know by now Schaeffer Cox is an extremely paranoid individual who actually took to wearing bulletproof vests and having friends carrying guns stand in as security while conducting visits with the Office of Children's Services.  This has led many to ponder the state of Cox's mental health.

Well ponder no more.

Yesterday Cox was asked just WHY he thought he was the target of a Federal hit squad:

Cox has gotten a lot of mileage out of his story about how federal agents had been dispatched to arrest or kill him. On Wednesday, he finally got the chance to explain how he came up with the theory and the curious string of events he said have given him pause. 

First, he'd had a run in with the Office of Children's Services. He couldn't figure out why the agency was intent on interviewing his 18-month-old son, who wasn't speaking yet. Suspicious vehicles were driving by his house. Out of the blue, an airport police officer pulled him over, not to make a traffic stop but to hand Cox a manila envelope containing Cox's domestic-terrorist profile. The officer never acknowledged what he'd handed to Cox, saying only, "Hang in there, buddy. There's a lot of us pulling for you." 

For months, Cox believed a six-man team from Aurora, Colo., had been sent to Alaska to kill him. According to Cox, he now knows he was wrong about it. He'd misinterpreted short hand notes on the supposed domestic terrorist file. A "Squad 6" in the paperwork wasn't a six-person hit team, but a reference to "squad #6" -- a unit within the FBI. The report had been generated in Aurora, but Cox was convinced that was the hometown of the imaginary agents he thought had been dispatched to deal with him. 

He also claims that around the same time, the summer of 2010, someone from the electric company that services his home called to warn him that the FBI had asked the company to flag Cox's residence as a danger zone and to prevent workers from going on the defendant’s property. A pastor at Bible Baptist Church also spoke to Cox about visits from FBI agents who asked "all kinds of questions" about the defendant. 

And the stories kept coming. Cox claimed he'd heard from a military police officer on Fort Wainwright that U.S. Marshals had stopped in and were talking about a plan to use Cox's son as a way to provoke Cox to act violently, giving them an excuse to shoot him and get rid of the "Schaeffer Cox problem." And finally, Cox heard rumors that a Fairbanks FBI agent had been overheard at church discussing his dislike of Cox. 

 "These things just keep adding up. I just kept not believing, but there becomes a time when you have to," Cox told the jury. "It was enough to make us scared."

Now just to sum up, Cox claims he was tipped off that he was under investigation by an airport police officer who handed him his "domestic-terrorist profile," by an electric company employee who said his residence was a "danger zone," by a pastor who said the FBI was asking questions, and by a Fort Wainwright police officer who warned him that "U.S. Marshals had stopped in and were talking about a plan to use Cox's son as a way to provoke Cox to act violently."

I hate to be a doubter, but this sounds like just about the most unbelievable set of circumstances imaginable. Not one, but TWO officers of the law put their careers in jeopardy by sharing classified information or warning Cox that he was about to be set up by the Feds?  Really?

To me this sounds like the rantings of a paranoid schizophrenic. That may not be a completely accurate diagnosis but I have to say that any doubt of Cox's mental illness should be put to rest after reading this.

Clearly the guy is a nutjob.  A nutjob who was actively attempting to purchase military style weaponry, and plotting the murder of law enforcement officials.

I can't imagine that the jury will have much difficulty deciding that Schaeffer Cox presents a clear and constant danger to his community and that he needs to be put away for a very long time.

And as for this idea he has that he was a target of the FBI? From what I understand Cox was considered nothing more than an irritating insect by law enforcement, a small man with an inflated sense of his own importance. Even after he started his little militia group he was not considered any sort of threat. That is right up until he started talking about kidnapping judges and killing State Troopers in their homes. Then things got real, and Schaeffer's paranoia finally had a reason to exist.

However here is something that people seem to be missing.  Back in 2008 when future FBI informant Bill "Drop Zone" Fulton first met Cox, Schaeffer was just some big mouth kid with no history of violence, and still two years away from his first brush with the law.

Do you remember WHO introduced Fulton to Cox?

I think it's safe to assume that Fulton had no idea at that time he would someday be instrumental in building a case against the skinny kid in the newsman's hat, so exactly WHAT was Fulton doing hanging out with Joe Miller and Frank Bailey in 2008?

Was that just a coincidence, or did Schaeffer Cox's criminal activities suddenly pull attention away from where the FBI was focused at the time?

Personally if I were Joe Miller, Frank Bailey, and Sarah Palin that would be EXACTLY what I would spend my sleepless nights worrying about right now. Especially if I were Joe Miller.