Sarah Gassen: Call Bundys what they are.

A group of people armed with guns and including some who’ve said they’re ready to die for their cause has taken over a public wildlife refuge facility in Oregon in a purposeful action against the federal government.

What are they — what do we call them?

They describe themselves as “militia men” and claim they’re defending the Constitution. The Bundy family of Nevada, whose members led an armed standoff against law enforcement in 2014 because they don’t want to pay to graze their cattle on public land, is leading the charge.

They claim they’re in Oregon to support local ranchers against the federal government. They cast themselves as patriots, as freedom fighters taking a noble stand against federal government oppression. Ammon Bundy, the group’s leader, told The Guardian he has a plan that will take several months, but wouldn’t explain the goal, except to return the land to “ranching, trucks and recreational vehicles like it used to be.”

Such idealistic fire must keep them warm as they occupy the visitors center of a bird sanctuary during a snowy Oregon winter.

Valley Forge it’s not.

Americans love the image of ourselves as rebels, as the courageous, ready and willing to take on authority.

The idealized, gauze-on-the-camera-lens version of our founding — a nation built on soaring revolutionary ideas, the sacrifice of daring men and women who defeated an imperial oppressor — runs deep in American DNA. Sometimes it runs amok.

So, where do these people bundled in warm winter coats at the Oregon wildlife refuge fit in? They’re not protestors — they ceased being protestors when they took up arms, broke into a public facility and declared themselves above the law. Some refer to them as occupiers, because they’re occupying a specific space — more like the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Sheriff David Ward of Harney County, Oregon, nails it: “These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers, when in reality these men had alternative motives to attempt to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States.”

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While the supremacy of the county sheriff is a tenet of antifederalist theology — there’s been a push, including in Arizona, to give county sheriffs authority over federal authority, workers and law enforcement — this Oregon group criticizes Ward. He’s told them to go home, back to their homes in other states. They should listen to the sheriff — it’s good advice.

Others say the Bundy Bunch are terrorists, because they’ve taken up arms against the government and say they’re ready to use force if law enforcement tries to remove them. The presence of deadly weapons changes everything, even if they’re legally owned, because it sends an intentional message of threat.

And this group displays another hallmark of terrorism: members who seek self-aggrandizing glorification as martyrs. It’s what every fundamentalist organization feeds on: the need some people have to be followers.

And followers they have, although the seeds of discontent are already visible among the group. One Utah man, who calls himself “Captain Moroni,” a reference to an important figure in Mormon legends, told an Oregon Public Radio reporter, “I came prepared for anything.”

He’d been with the Bundys at their ranch in 2014, he said. He sounds hungry for validation.

“I feel quite betrayed. It’s been on Facebook that everyone is going to come. And we show up, and everyone just craps out,” he said. “You come up here, ready to get killed if we have to, and these people are just on Facebook about it. I’m not here to shoot anyone, I’m here to get shot.”

Martyrdom is a dangerous motivator.

So, the question remains: What do we call the people who’ve taken over the federal wildlife refuge? Right-wing militants, seditionists, extremists, occupiers, criminals, terrorists, followers? All of the above.

This is a group of individuals who want to take our shared public land for their own private use, like grazing their cattle. They’re not fighting for a noble cause. They’re not fighting for “the people.” They’re fighting for themselves.

So let’s call them what they are: selfish — and dangerous.