There was a shootout Thursday in Laplace, Louisiana, between sheriff’s deputies and so-called Sovereign Citizens, with two deputies being killed and another one wounded. Seven member of the group were arrested. The news media will report on this whole thing in a predictable way, and no doubt editorial pages around the country will call for new crackdowns on militias, along with more gun control.

Yet, when I see something like this, I cannot help but wonder if there is something else behind this. First, many, if not all of the “militia” groups have been infiltrated by the FBI. Second, any time there is violence, it ultimately benefits the government, not to mention organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center, which raises money by claiming it is “monitoring” so-called hate groups and other supposedly dangerous organizations such as the League of the South. No doubt, the SPLC, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the New York Times editorial page will be putting out reams of copy claiming that unless the government seizes more power and arrests more people, we will see even more of these violent incidents.

Yes, all of this might be exactly as reported. At the same time, knowing how our government has been seizing power in the past two decades by claiming it is protecting us from “terrorists,” I cannot help but wonder if this has been yet another false flag incident in which the violence was triggered by government agents who wanted a firefight in order to put even more fear in the hearts of everyone else. I just don’t know.