"just because you are an american" omg. 🤣

 

While I have nothing against them, I'm a bit wary of militias. They are very local/regional and there's no UCMJ to regulate them. If shtf and you have to travel through their area, you exist at their whim. It could really become a situation no better than how tribes in Afghanistan operate. Now I'm just painting the worst sort of picture there. Knowing that any militia in the US would be staffed by American's, at least there would be the commonality of US law and the Constitution. Hopefully that's what they would form under and for. Then again, you could run into a group of enthusiastic backwoods locals decked out in RealTree and their best 5.11 gear just waiting for someone to come down their road. So basically it all comes down to...know your local militia. Maybe someone can make a guide book for the militias in all 50 states so you would have a heads up. Oh wait, I think the FBI and DHS already has one. I used to be in the Civil Air Patrol in high school. That was considered Air Force axillary. Maybe militias would be working with local NG or law enforcement when nobody else will be coming. I don't know. We can only hope that crap doesn't devolve into Mad Max where everyone is for themselves. But I have a feeling that there will be a lot of that. Sorry to be so long winded....
Militia at your own risk....

 

“Knowing that any militia in the US would be staffed by American's, at least there would be the commonality of US law and the Constitution.”

I respectfully disagree with this comment. With our open borders, drug cartels, FBI, CIA, etc., infiltrators, and a mish/mash of cultures in America clearly not assimilating, I think the make up of militias will be cultural and geographical. Then there’s also the rumors of Chinese special forces and Venezuelan prisoners here on American soil. If resources get interrupted, I think things will go tribal quickly. I hope I’m wrong.

 

''What kind of American are you?''

Militias? Don't know any but I highly recommend this book:

 

I'm afraid too many of the Militias would go the way of "The Holnists" and their "General Bethlehem", little more than a local warlord/terrorist that's only in it for the power they couldn't find before.

 

Deep topic, I'll need a moment. I voted yes, but that may change upon further contemplation. Response and explaination tomorrow.

 

Ya know, I have a problem with this clip. First, what's with the rose colored sunglasses and given the obvious lethality taking place in the movie who would carry an AR with one magazine? 🤔

 

Let us look at what is happening now, we have people coming into the country that want to do us harm and so who will they go after first, this would be the police so the mission would be for capable men in a certain age range to back up the Sheriff and the local police. Then after this you have the older men who are not able to run a few miles anymore that will protect the women and children in the local communities, this is very simple and not complicated since this is exactly what they did back in years past.

 

If the militia's role is to protect the people of it's region from an attack by a foreign entity (chinese nationals etc) then I am for it. I'm not a militia but I would help my neighbors if something like this were to happen.

 

In the event of invasion or government collapse, then the militia is a logical and Constitutional event.

 

If the militia were to follow UCMJ, not become a warlord faction, and follow the original intent of militia's as outlined in the Constitution, I'm 100% for them. But if they become "Warlord" like, nope...

 

Personally "skeptical" of most "groups". Religious, community, neighborhood, government...even car/motorcyle/off road. Anytime a group is formed with a hierarchy, the potential exists for nefarious outcomes. Any/all groups require funding to operate. So looking at the sources of income generation is key to assessing the "merits" of the group.

Regarding "militia's" specifically - outside of the National Guard, where funding is generated via "tax revenue/appropriation", I am not aware of how "local militias" would generate funding. Dues? Donations? Illicit enterprises? Looking at "one" example...motorcyle clubs...many turn to illicit activities to fund their existence. That in itself, raises concerns - unless you are of a mindset to engage in such activity/risks.

Militias by their very nature, involve arms. Arms require funding. Funding requires $$. Where does it come from?
Caution is prudent.

 

Originally each “militia” member was required to provide their own weapons, powder. Was considered a civic responsibility.

 

To defend our neighbors/fellow townsfolk from external danger like a foreign invasion or looters/rioters/“protesters”? Yes, absolutely

When it starts to look like the American version of the Taliban? No…

 

What the militia was originally, I'd be prone to be for it.

But I think too many today are individual entities based more on race/religion/politics/camo brand or some other agreed upon ideology, and less on America and Americans.

 

"Well regulated" in the 2nd Amendment means well equipped and well trained in soldiering.
How many "militia" people today meet that second part?

 

Training for the first 100 years of our nation was done by militia members in their communities. Most members were not veterans but neighbors and normal people; the way our armed forces were supposed to be.

That could be done again today

 

Not enough information to answer the question. Valid today? No. Valid tomorrow? maybe.

 

Hey, God bless those guys and I hope everything works out for them. Here, at the casa de WILL, it's just me. I'd love some helpful, like-minded folks living next door, but I got fat, lazy unskilled at anything useful neighbors. Unless your militia lives in your neighborhood, they're probably not going to be terribly useful to you in a disaster and vice versa. Most folks are too busy in normal life for excessive extracurricular activities away from home. It'll be 10x worse in a disaster.

 

I am of the opinion that Militias should be involved in far more than just the sharp end of things. They should be a part of the community, they should be doing toy drives at Christmas, charity runs if members ride, neighborhood response in the event of natural disaster or calamity. They should be active in normal times, assisting the elderly, helping to rescue animals. YES, all the non-combat stuff that helps the community. That is how you become accepted and people should be used to seeing them around doing good things. They should be known to and work with the local sheriff's department, local fire department, things like that.

 

OK, here it is. I was going to write a big dissertation with citations of law, but I'm tired and it really needs a whole book. So here's my opinion, subject to future modification.

Militias can be either a supplemental arm of government forces, or an army of non-professionals fighting toward specific goals. (E.g, democracy, freedom, Mom and apple pie.)

In AZ, by law everyone from 18-45, men AND women are in the State Militia. Which may, in theory, be called up by the Governor, but never has. There are various groups that purport to be sanctioned militia's, but they aren't. However, they are out there, on the fringes, preparing. For something.

In reality the "militia" is meant as a last ditch call-up to defend the state from say an attack by "Calimexico." Especially if they don't stop stealing OUR water!

In a WROL or SHTF type situation, local "militias" or "unsanctioned auxiliary police forces," would likely form up to defend subdivisions, or towns/regions. Non-government militia's can really only exist when there is a void of formal government and lack of civil order. Or, when government police/military are at odds with, or a danger to, the Will of the People to such an extent that armed intervention is their only option.

Militias differ from gangs, warlords or cartels in that they operate for political and sociological reasons, not personal profit. Not that the edges can't be blurred.

My experience in central america was most were death squads, operating under various fluid government protections. The Contras fell under the militia umbrella. A semi-legal force, tolerated by the govt, with outside (US) financing and supply chain. Others like the URNG in Guatemala were defending the People against a genocidal right wing government. They were largely self financed by robbery and local "taxes," often collected at gunpoint via rural roadblocks.

In Guatemala in the 80's there was a mass conscription of campesinos into govt sanctioned local militias. Refuse and you were shot, maybe your family too. Like the US, it was a country divided.

Based on past actions, current US "militia groups" such as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers or NFAC/Antifa factions, in my opinion would fall into the death squad category pretty quick if the constraints of law and govt were removed.

We are unlikely to ever see fielded armies on US soil. Not like CW1 or the revolutionary war. The technology precludes that. Short of foreign intervention, which is so unlikely as to be unworthy of much consideration.

While we may have a lot of rhetorical infighting and opinion differences in the US these days, anyone who has witnessed our military in action understands there is no force capable of going toe to toe with us in a slugfest. Which doesn't mean an insurgency is impossible.

A guerilla war in the US, fought by "militias," is possible, perhaps even likely at some point in the future. I suspect it will be a distant future though, even considering all the current political differences. We are seeing many warning signs which can lead to civil war, or regime collapse, but none of the actual actions. No general strikes, extended trucker blockades, economic collapse, infrastructure destruction, desaparecidos, or widespread rioting brutally crushed by govt forces.

When I arrived in Nicaragua in 1979, they were in the final stages of taking down the Somoza regime. The Sandinistas "owned" the countryside. They had near universal popular support, and were moving on the larger cities. Yet they only had about 6,000 teenage fighters, but once people saw which direction the wind was blowing they jumped aboard in a ground swell. Blowing up people's homes, driving them into poverty, and killing them tends to cause anti-govt sentiment.

At my age (70) if our country devolves into chaos, I'll be focused on not starving, keeping my own **** in order and not being a threat to the powers that be. Any fighting will have to be done by younger folks. But I don't see much of the fortitude or interest in most people to look up from their cell phones long enough to overthrow a country. To them, "the dictator is the dictator," and they really don't care who it is, so long as their EBT cards work.

 

My understanding is that Militias are illegal in Oregon. This was done shortly after the Rajneeshpuram cult debacle in 1980's Oregon.

So pretty much eliminated any legitimate "good" Militia in the State, and stopped any "good" ones from forming.

The "good" ones I speak of are (or were) active, and do legitimate good things during times of strife. So far, just helping out in various natural disasters. Both in their respective locales / regions on towards helping out other American locales / regions when there is need.

The MSM, being MSM has only focused on the "bad". Because "shark week" (scare tactics/ratings), while rarely & minutely airing any good. Perhaps why for many years, Americans think of Militia as bad. Without ever considering that there could be, and is "muchly" good...

Which is too bad. Opportunity lost for everyone to help, how they can, if they so wish. Further pushing reliance onto .gov.

 

‘Out of the Mountains, the coming age of the urban guerrilla’, by David Killcullen is a very interesting read.


I think we’re already seeing this in cities like San Francisco, LA, NY, Chicago and the like. Even worse, I think there’s a global, and internal, intent to collapse America.

Out of the Mountains | Hurst Publishers

‘A brilliant book by the most unfettered and analytically acute mind in the military intelligentsia.’ — Mike Davis, author of 'Planet of Slums'

www.hurstpublishers.com

Description
In his third book, David Kilcullen takes us out of the mountains: away from the remote, rural guerrilla warfare of Afghanistan, and into the marginalised slums and complex security threats of the world’s coastal cities, where almost 75 per cent of us will be living by mid-century. Scrutinising major environmental trends — population growth, coastal urbanisation — and increasing digital connectivity, he projects a future of feral cities, urban systems under stress, and increasing overlaps between crime and war, internal and external threats, and the real and virtual worlds. Informed by Kilcullen’s own fieldwork in the Caribbean, Somalia, the Middle East and Afghanistan, and that of his field research teams in cities in Central America and Africa, Out of the Mountains presents detailed, on-the-ground accounts of the new faces of modern conflict –– from the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, to transnational drug networks, local street gangs, and the uprisings of the Arab Spring.

 

‘Out of the Mountains, the coming age of the urban guerrilla’, by David Killcullen is a very interesting read.


I think we’re already seeing this in cities like San Francisco, LA, NY, Chicago and the like. Even worse, I think there’s a global, and internal, intent to collapse America.

Out of the Mountains | Hurst Publishers

‘A brilliant book by the most unfettered and analytically acute mind in the military intelligentsia.’ — Mike Davis, author of 'Planet of Slums'

www.hurstpublishers.com

Description
In his third book, David Kilcullen takes us out of the mountains: away from the remote, rural guerrilla warfare of Afghanistan, and into the marginalised slums and complex security threats of the world’s coastal cities, where almost 75 per cent of us will be living by mid-century. Scrutinising major environmental trends — population growth, coastal urbanisation — and increasing digital connectivity, he projects a future of feral cities, urban systems under stress, and increasing overlaps between crime and war, internal and external threats, and the real and virtual worlds. Informed by Kilcullen’s own fieldwork in the Caribbean, Somalia, the Middle East and Afghanistan, and that of his field research teams in cities in Central America and Africa, Out of the Mountains presents detailed, on-the-ground accounts of the new faces of modern conflict –– from the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, to transnational drug networks, local street gangs, and the uprisings of the Arab Spring.

Will have to check this out. I'm not sure there is a coordinated effort to hurt America, but for certain we have a LOT of enemies who would like to see us where we are and would like to make it worse. Are we going to let them?

 

Actually in 1886 the case of Presser vs Illinois held that the government can outlaw militias that are not State national guard. I believe every state has made them illegal or ineffective. Like AZ where we have a law authorizing a State militia but it's never been used.

Here is everything you ever wanted to know about militias. Beware possible wokeness / anti-gin bias. Wish I'd found it earlier, could have saved an hour of typing...

Are Militias Legal?

After receiving several questions from readers, our Ask The Trace series examines militia groups, from the Constitution to the modern day.

www.thetrace.org

.

 

Actually Texas has it's own Texas State Militia answerable only to the Gov of Texas, totally separate from the Texas Nat Guard.. The Nat Guard can be called up and militarized by the President, he can't touch a State Militia.

https://texasstatemilitia.org/

 

I don't think militias are practical. The problem with invalidating them is that they are attached to the right to bear arms in the Constitution. Can't have one without the other.

 

The militia as mentioned in the 2a is a pre factory clause that could have well said, “the right to self defense, the right to protect home, hearth and property, or the need to provide security” or anything else.

The militia was simply one of countless reasons that is inclusive of the people’s (not the state or militia or community’s) right to bear arms. That right is not result of the need for a militia but rather, it’s the other way round - because we may need a militia, the people’s individual right to bear arms shall not be infringed.

That being said, there is language that specifies what the militia is, what it’s role is and who is part of it.

 

Good friend of mine is rabidly pro-militia, almost to the point of saying that the militias will be the only thing that saves this country if something happens.
[SNIP]
Is there a place for the militias in today's first world?

I think there is a place for militias, but the problem with most is someone always wants to be "king".

That can be good if you have someone who is sane and knows military strategy. However, most groups I've seen become a club, with delusional folks who have little training, who want to play Rambo more than perform an organized counter-offensive or defensive play.

In my "neighborhood" we don't have an organized militia, and sure don't talk about what organization we have, mainly because of the stigma associated with feral groups. The group which we do have practice together, we study actions which have transpired, and do table-top exercises where we hope we can think of all the ways someone might attack us, and our response. I think our efforts fall into what @rice paddy daddy was questioning.

I'm also not as concerned about being attacked by our (US) military, as I am about rogue bands of people wanting to hurt us, or seize our assets for their own. Face it, probably everyone in this thread has people within 5-10 miles of them who would think nothing about raiding someone else's home.

 

I think there is a place for militias, but the problem with most is someone always wants to be "king".

I'm also not as concerned about being attacked by our (US) military, as I am about rogue bands of people wanting to hurt us, or seize our assets for their own. Face it, probably everyone in this thread has people within 5-10 miles of them who would think nothing about raiding someone else's home.

Five miles? More like 500 feet. But that problem will be mitigated ten minutes after tshtf. Within ten miles there's probably 1,000 well armed serious barbarians who are capable of extreme violence. Some are survivalists, some are criminals. All are dangerous now, take the constraints of social order away and it will get very ugly. Like the guy punk who road raged me the other day. Those are the one's who worry me. They are barely reigned in now, take away the consequences and you have a Mad Max environment.

 

You can buy your very own psycho militia-guy pink glasses for only $15! 🤣 🤣

This will be the new required tacticool item for every serious militiaman.

Pardon Our Interruption...

 

Now these folks would look good wearing those A24 Red Sunglasses..

 

That's the scary NFAC. Scary because TWO of them managed to shoot themselves by accident at protests. 🤣 🤣

And now I know why we spent so much time marching in the Army. We looked gooood.