Militias

The crux of your post is the question “are they legal” and the answer AFAIK is “yes”. That’s the easy part. A militia is just a collection of any able-bodied people of legal age who can help provide for the common defense.

The Bloomberg article (Bloomberg is pretty left leaning so take everything on there with a grain of salt) says the following which I think is untrue as a blanket over all militias. Some of them, sure, but far from all. At the end of the article they predictably tie white-supremacists to militias to gun owners to far-right to Trump.

The word “militia” now describes loosely organized groups of civilians who usually share anti-government views and strongly support gun ownership. Some are even preparing for a new Civil War.

It’s a very broad and vague definition. Able bodied can mean a lot of things, and common defense of what or whom? Very likely if you are able to read this, you are technically part of a militia (old enough, and likely with a firearm). Some states have a state organized militia (not always called a militia, in Virginia it is the State Defense Force i think) but most do not. I think Colorado springs to mind (i could be misremembering) as a state with several loosely organized militias. There are probably a few states that don’t have any organized militias.

The danger, as with most things, is in the implementation.

A militia of your neighbors who band together to keep antifa out (several towns/neighborhoods were documented as doing this over the summer) is totally fine. A militia which is actually just an excuse to go camping and shooting with your buddies a few weekends a year as “training” is totally fine.

However a militia that aims to replace local police is not fine. A militia that aims to displace local (or federal) government is not fine. A militia that aims to promote civil disruption or anarchy (think antifa) is not fine.

As noted in the article, militias have gotten a reputation because of a small group of whackos occasionally stirring up trouble. Most militias are really not that serious nor that well organized.

The bad militias are pretty easy to identify. Trust your intuition on that.

If interested in a local/state militia, do your due diligence and see what it is that they stand for. If any flags, and I mean ANY flags, appear you can’t run away fast enough. If they pass that test, scope out a meeting and talk to some actual members and see if what they say they do matches up with what they actually do. A good militia is probably going to scope you out as much as you scope them out because the risk of a CNN reporter sneaking in to do a hit piece is likely really high right now. Which is probably the single best reason to give them a wide berth.

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Vice President Harris, Senator Hirono, and the New America Foundation have ALL publicly labeled KofC a “far right hate group.” I don’t think it is actually because of the swords. Welcome to the party!

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Scary times indeed.

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Maybe an example would help of why some would form?

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Really? Is that because they’re “knights?” Or is it because they don’t like Columbus?

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Neither, although both are on the list. But their primary reasons are that the group is traditional and Christian, specifically of the traditional views of marriage, family, and LGBTQ behavior variety (the more correct and scientific word I wanted to use was censored by the moderators…the antonym of heterosexual).

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Another reason for some kind of militia would be three nights of riots in Portland and Seattle. Police are overwhelmed and no help is coming. Wouldn’t it be helpful if there was some group to stand in the gap? Could we not say that is “re-imagining”. The police or security? What do they tell us about natural disasters, be ready to defend yourselves. Man made disasters should or could be dealt with the same way.

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Yes, I absolutely see the value in organized defense when the police are overwhelmed. I keep thinking of the Korean shop owners during the Rodney King riots, but we’ve seen similar examples in recent months. I guess that could technically be called a “militia,” but that seems like a different case than a bunch of dudes out playing Army in the back 40.

I’m repeating myself, but if you’ve got a good group of friends and you call yourself a militia, that’s great. Personally, though, I just shy away from groups of people who adopt that term. Maybe I’m just privileged that I’ve never felt the need to band together with my fellow amateurs for some type of common defense.

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Read what the Second Amendment clearly reads.
It does not state exclusively that a “militia” is what is commonly known as a modern day guard unit or reserve unit.
It says that the states militia & right to bear arms.
It is no different now than when the British empire imposed occupation & stringent laws against the colonist.
By the new members of Congress doing what they’re doing right now is the exact same path that led America into its first Civil War- No it was not exclusively about slavery. It will lead to a second one as well- guaranteed.
Militias are necessary & only labeled as “Extremist” by the alphabet agency soup sandwich organizations that hate to see law abiding citizens stand up for their rights.
Freedom must be fought for, earned, & defended periodically.
Several quotations from our nation’s greatest historical figures continued to state as such & remind all that it is not free nor solid. It is fragile, very fragile.
The current members of Congress are so behind closed doors so much, passing so many laws that never came to the will of the people that it has become an established us / them agenda.
China stating that Americans having firearms is a problem that must be remedied is exactly why militias are needed.
Don’t have faith in “ We’re the government and we’re here to help”[Ronald Reagan]. There’s a Patriot behind every thing in the environment. The government would be overwhelmed if as few as 3 nations attempted to invade us.
Do you really think that these protestors from 2020 would / will defend this nation? No! They’d be collaborating with the enemy!
Militias aren’t terrorist or extremist. Militias are an additional level of defense for the nation.
I’m not currently in one, but if extremism against our 2A Rights continues to foster abolishment or sanctions against pro 2A citizens or organizations, I won’t only be a member of a militia, but will create one with the same disciplinary training-conduct-standards that we lived by in the U.S. Military. And…, I do mean in all mannerisms.

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PA HB2957 is an interesting read. Introduced in November 2020 trying to stand up the PennCorps SDF. Don’t know much about PennCorps history other than its intent is to work directly for the Governor to augment state and local LEOs and provide intrastate mutual aid.

Oddly enough, this shiney bill, as proposed, restricts the possession, sale, and transfer of “high-power firearm” ammunition above .22 caliber to active licensed members of PennCorps.

An individual may retain what they have, but may no longer purchase once it’s gone. Unless of course you belong to the gestapo…I mean PennCorps.

Also provides members with immunity in the event of death or injury to persons or property damage when “complying or attempting to comply with the system”.

There’s quite a bit to digest…probably going to take a bit to read in its entirety and get my head wrapped around it all.

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I’ve never felt comfortable with tiered rights for certain groups. We’re all citizens. I don’t believe in second class citizenry. I should be allowed to purchase anything that the police or militia can have, and they should not be allowed to have anything that I can’t have.

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“Civilian force as well trained and well funded as the military”. Who said this? No, it wasnt the 1930s German guy.

Barack Hussein Obama

This is a curiosity.
Quelling civil unrest should first be the function of LE, however the DA in this case has no interest in doing his/her job
and should be impeached.
If resources required exceed what LE can provide, the National Guard is the “go to” however the Governor in this case has no interest in doing his/her job by not calling in the NG and should be impeached
If the NG has been federalized and deployed elsewhere in the world, like DC or Syria, the State Militia/SMR/SDF is there to provide an active response as well as a training cadre.
That’s the way it’s supposed to flow, and that’s why State Militias cannot be deployed outside their State. State Militias and the NG are afforded the same protections as full time service members.
At least it was before the Soldier and Sailor’s Relief Act (1918, 1940) was replaced with the Servicemembers Relief Act in 2003.
But I’m not a lawyer, never played one on TV and haven’t slept in a Holiday Inn Express.

FWIW here’s my old outfit:
https://stateguard.cmd.ca.gov/public/

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Want to re-up?

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Reup? He!! no! Did that once in the National Guard and regretted it. They let me slide through MEPS with all of my crippling disabilities. I filed for disability much later though and was approved first time. That’s how bad it was.

Right now they are going after the 2nd amendment, which is a “Power Movement”. It is not about guns, but about POWER!. I have always avocated that once they take the 2nd amendment they would go after other constitutional rights. And now even earlier than I expected, they are going after the 1st amendment, FREE SPEECH! Censoring, banning, even labeling people to go after that go against their Narrative and Marxist Movement. It has come to the Point that yes, we all need to ban together to fight them and Militia’s will be very necessary in the coming 4 years.

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A variant of this discussion happened in Colonial America, too. But in those days, a militia was a typical pillar of polite society alongside a church, a mill, and a blacksmith shop. The Crown had established the militia in each colony (now states). When the British Army began disarming those same militias, a substantial percentage of them went rogue. Lexington and Concord were the first and second engagements of the non-compliant militia against the British Army acting on orders of the Crown to disarm them.

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I wonder how you come to label something a Marxist Movement. Marxist History, the idea of history as a tale of class struggle, has been thoroughly disproven and debunked. Self-styled liberals and progressives know this to be the case. There has been no substantial movement in the U.S. based on Marxist ideas sine the 1950s.

@Daniel228
So are the leaders of a major movement today mistaken? Anti capitalist, anti police, anti prisons, pro re-education? Well I am sure we all have read their “demands”

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