? A Kansas militia group says it rejected two men who are accused of plotting to kill immigrants in western Kansas because they were “too extreme for us.”

Those two men, Patrick Stein and Gavin Wright, have pleaded not guilty to a federal charge accusing them of conspiring with another man, Curtis Allen, in what federal prosecutors said was a domestic terrorism plot by members of a small militia group to attack Somali immigrants in Garden City.

The criminal complaint alleged that the defendants were key members of a militia group.

Attorneys for Wright and Stein declined to comment on the case. Allen’s attorney did not respond to a request from the Kansas City Star for comment.

Stein’s attorney, Ed Robinson, told a magistrate judge during an Oct. 21 detention hearing that the three men were not plotting an attack but accumulating weapons and ammunition as a means to defend themselves in case of a “massive social upheaval.”

Miles Evans, state commander of the Kansas Flatlanders Militia, said Stein and Wright first contacted him about a week apart in July or August through social media. Evans said he had run into the two at militia training events but they belonged to another group.

“So I went to my second-in-command and spoke with him. He basically said all we can do is vet them, see what their outlook is and see what their intentions are,” said Evans, of Wichita. He said about halfway through the process they rejected the men.

“They were just very extreme with the way they go about things,” he said. “Too extreme for us.”

Evans said his group is the biggest militia in Kansas and has about 30 members who are “like-minded, law-abiding citizens that all believe the same thing. And that is, our government is turning to (expletive).” Members are dedicated to serving their communities in times of natural and man-made disasters, he said.

“We’re just ordinary citizens committed to the preservation of the American way with strict adherence to the Constitution of the United States and of Kansas, and to the Republic of the United States of America,” he said.

He said Stein’s responses to some questions were troubling.

“One of the deals he was talking about, if we ever had a fallout situation or anything, our bug-out locations, where they would be, what would we do, and how would we take that area and hold it for our own and stuff like that,” Evans said. “And he just started talking about popping people. He was like, ‘When it comes to things like that, I ain’t even letting them go through the gate. Our numbers are going to be high enough; we need to defend what’s ours and we need to keep the number low.’ “

Evans said that was a red flag.

“We bounced him out of the chat,” he said.