A HEAVILY armed band of right-wing extremists seized a government building in the US state of Oregon on Saturday in protest at the jailing of two ranchers for arson.

 

The 150 gunmen occupied the headquarters of the the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday, vowing to stay “for years.”

 

They include three sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was at the centre of a mass armed stand-off with the Bureau of Land Management in 2014 over $1 million (£677,000) he owes in grazing fees in Gold Butte, a proposed conservation area.

 

“We’re going to be freeing these lands up, and getting ranchers back to ranching, getting the loggers back to logging, getting the miners back to mining … under the protection of the people and not be afraid of this tyranny that’s been set upon them,” said Mr Bundy’s son Ammon in a Facebook video.

 

Ammon and his brother Ryan told reporters they had not ruled out violence if police tried to remove them.

 

Dwight Hammond and his son Steven admitted setting fires in 2001 and 2006, claiming it was to control weeds and protect their property from wildfires.

 

The pair were convicted three years ago, with the elder Mr Hammond serving three months and his son one year.

 

But a judge ruled their sentences too lenient under federal law and ordered them to serve an additional four years each.

 

nPresident Barack Obama is set to meet Attorney General Loretta Lynch today to discuss gun-control measures that would circumvent the Republican-controlled Congress.