What started out as a legal battle between the Hammond family and the state has turned into a full-scale militia standoff in a federal government building in Oregon. Led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy, an anti-government group took siege of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge on Saturday, January 2.

The militants’ demands include “that the Hammonds be released and that the surrounding federal lands be ceded to local control. “

“The best possible outcome is that the ranchers that have been kicked out of the area…will come back and reclaim their land, and the wildlife refuge will be shut down forever and the federal government will relinquish such control,” Ryan Bundy said. “What we’re doing is not rebellious. What we’re doing is in accordance with the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land.”

Steps are currently in motion to resolve militants’ occupation. “There are things being done,” Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward said Tuesday.

The FBI and federal agencies are currently handling the siege. The focus right now is on protecting people from possible militant violence. Many visiting protesters have gone in support, and while some have denounced the occupation, others remained behind to support the occupiers.

Some of the occupants are willing to give their lives before they surrender. 54-year-old occupier LaVoy Finicum said, “he’d sooner die than go to a federal prison.”

Another occupier was heard saying, “I’ve had to do a lot of soul-searching up here…And I am 100 percent willing to lay my life down to fight against tyranny in this country.”