Outside view: The case for a U.S. militia

[rms/pa]

keep in mind , while you are "do it yourself" militia organizing. PA (at least) has a law on "illegal paramilitary training".

what this covers is not clear to me.

rms/pa

 

[Dex Sinister]

The militia, we also decided, would not have powers of arrest unless deputized.

Well, Lind's point on arrest powers seems a little silly, as the only difference between a "civilian" and police officer's arrest powers is that a police officer can arrest for a witnessed misdemeanor or on suspicion of a felony, and the "civilian" can arrest on a witnessed felony.

[Well, aside from immunity from prosecution for false arrest, anyway.]

Presumably, one wouldn't want such an organization arresting people for misdemeanors in any case.

Dex }:>=-

 

[Aguila Blanca]

As for the post starting this tread, I think it is a good idea. I'd probably join up. However, I don't see it ever coming to fruition. I doubt the feds would pass the legislation to allow it.

They don't need to pass a law. The Militia Act has been updated, but it is still included in the U.S. Code.

keep in mind , while you are "do it yourself" militia organizing. PA (at least) has a law on "illegal paramilitary training".

what this covers is not clear to me.

I don't know what that law covers, either, but I believe PA state law also includes a provision for a militia. If you are organizing a militia with the avowed and express intent of being a "backup backup" to the Reserve and NG under the provisions of the Militia Act, and you proceed accordingly, I think they would be hard pressed to convict you of "illegal paramilitary training." (That's not to say they might not try, of course.)

 

[stevelyn]

Wouldn't the Minuteman Project be a model of the militia concept as discussed here even though MMP is mission specific?

 

[chaim]

They don't need to pass a law. The Militia Act has been updated, but it is still included in the U.S. Code.

The Militia Act defines who is militia. However, rightly or wrongly, the government has decided that it needs to give the states approval to organize a militia.

The State Guards and Defense Forces (which are considered state militias) were only legally authorized after Congress passed a law during the Reagan years to authorize them. No state even attempted to organize such a thing before the law.

Now, what would happen if a state would organize a militia without federal approval, citing the Constitution as their authorization? I don't know. I'm sure the Feds would strongly protest, and I'm sure it would get to the Supreme Court eventually (plus possibly federal occupation of the state in question). What the Court would decide, no idea.

I suppose what they could do to cover themselves is organize a State Guard/Defense Force under the law pertaining to the State Guard but imbue it with more power and responsibility than most State Guards have (I don't know if the current law would allow anything like what we are talking about however).

 

[Aguila Blanca]

You're missing the point, chaim -- or else I am.

I served in the military a long while ago, and my active and stand-by reserve commitments are likewise long since expired. I don't want or need any state to "organize" me -- I'm a member of the UNorganized militia, by authorization of the Federal Militia Act. I don't need a state to tell me I can be a member of this militia -- I already am (okay, technically I was, since I am now over the age limit, but pretend I'm 44 years old as I write this).

How can a state or any other level of government claim either a right or a duty or authority to "organize" that which is established in the U.S. Code as "unorganized"?

 

[another okie]

"The State Guards and Defense Forces (which are considered state militias) were only legally authorized after Congress passed a law during the Reagan years to authorize them. No state even attempted to organize such a thing before the law."

This is incorrect. Some State Guard units were created as early as World War I in response to the overseas use of National Guard units, leaving the states without any armed force of their own. Mahon, History of the Militia and the National Guard, page 172.

 

[The Real Hawkeye]

When John Brown and his followers raided the Harpers Ferry Armory in 1859, which armed force do you suppose was the first, by a long shot, to respond? It was the local militia, i.e., just regular folks. They had the place surrounded already, and Brown and his men pinned down, when the regular army finally showed up. Back then, the first responders were the men of the militia. That was as the Founders intended.