The obsession with firearms within mormon circles has deep frontier roots. Mormons were expelled from every community they set down roots in or created on the frontier until migrating out of the United States into the Salt Lake Valley. Even then, federal troops were eventually sent in to put down the mormon menace.

Mormon doctrine is that the Constitution of the United States was inspired by God to create a country where religious freedoms would be protected. Which were then trampled upon when mobs combined against the mormons in Missouri. Governor Boggs then issued the famous (among mormons) Extermination Order stating that the mormons were to be expelled by force if necessary.

Appeals for retribution of property taken were made by founder and Prophet Joseph Smith to then President of the United States Martin Van Buren who is reported to have said "Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you". Van Buren gets no love from Mormons to this day, though he gets no attention at all from anybody else, so I guess his legacy is tied to mormonism like it or not.

The extermination order had much to do with local politics. The Missourians feared losing their political clout as more and more mormons moved in. Missouri was a Slave state, which ran counter to mormons views that slavery was a blight on the country and Joseph Smith's teaching that the federal government should free the slaves and compensate the slave holders with money. Some of the locals' fears were warranted as the mormons did feel the land was their's to create a new society and spoke about it plainly.

The mobs continued to harrass momrons and their leaders which culminated in the murder of Joseph Smith. At that point Brigham Young began the migration to the Salt lake Valley, which was tecnically Mexican territory.

Years later when the Federal government imposed its will on the Utah Territory with punitive laws designed to stamp out mormon polygamy with the very real threat of seizing all property and incarceration of most the church's leadership, mormons once again felt their constitutional rights being trampled upon.

Like I said before, these guys are crazy. This kind of crazy has deep roots that go back 5 or 6 generations of very real grievances. Most mormons I know would never think to do anything like this let alone act. They are mostly bluster and talk just as any other conservative group. This group however seems to have slipped a cog and I bet most of them are second guessing an action they didn't think through in the heat of the moment. I really hope this ends without bloodshed. Embarrassing as it is, these are my people.