
The Three Percenters are an American and Canadian far-right and right-libertarian militia movement founded by Michael Brian Vanderboegh in 2008 to resist federal governmental involvement in local affairs. The group derived its name from the erroneous claim that only three percent of Americans took up arms with the Patriots against Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War, and they identified with the far-right "patriot" movement. They were founded in response to the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States, and they opposed stricter gun control laws, governmental overreach and "tyranny", believed that county sheriffs were "the supreme law of the land", and made racist comments against Obama during his presidency. The Three Percenters drew much of their membership from former and current members of the military, police, and other anti-government groups such as the Oath Keepers. While the Three Percenters formally distanced themselves from discrimination and the "anti-government" label, they participated in the 2021 United States coup d'etat attempt in Washington DC on 6 January 2021. On 25 June 2021, Canada designated the Three Percenters a terrorist organization. The Three Percenter leadership dissolved the American national group on 21 February 2021 in response to the Capitol attack, condemning the violence; however, local Three Percenter groups continued.