Taking advantage of the Freedom of Information Act, one Plowshares activist requested his file from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Bureau responded that it needed an advance payment for photocopying expenses since his file was nearly 400 pages long. Similarly, when Philip Berrigan was arrested in 1997 for a Plowshares action in Bath, Maine, the prosecuting attorneys pulled his criminal record. It revealed that Berrigan had been arrested nearly forty times in the previous thirty years and had spent over ten years behind bars. While these individuals may have more extensive records than other Plowshares activists, many movement participants are repeat offenders who, time and time again, commit dramatic acts of civil disobedience. What enables these individuals to persistently resist over time? How do they sustain their commitment to peace work through the years and decades, especially when the consequences of their activism are severe? These questions deal with the issue of activist retention – the developmental challenge that organizers must address if they hope to maintain their movement over the long run, avoiding the shift into abeyance or the complete termination of their movement.

Now nearly thirty years old, the U.S. Plowshares movement has demonstrated considerable endurance as a result of its ability to sustain activists' commitment. The movement's longevity is even more noteworthy considering the broader disarmament movement subsided in the early 1990s as the Cold War ended.