Civil Militias Aren't

 

In the Spring of 1995, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was destroyed by domestic terrorism. The bomber and his accomplice -- Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols respectively -- were connected to what quickly became known as Civil Militias or the American Militia Movement and neo-Nazi groups. 

I was eighteen years old and quite ideological. I had been raised as a libertarian by my dad and held suspicions like taxes were evil and the Feds were hopelessly corrupt. When the bombing happened, militias quickly became part of the news and were demonized. From my naive and impressionable understanding, I believed that militias were favored over standing armies by the founders and upheld by the Constitution. I began to protest the outrage over the militias and decided to form my own, which thankfully never took root. I always have ideas, but I stink an implementation.

I designed a group called the DoC or Defenders of the Constitution (defending a document I had only ever skimmed). Its membership was just me. I had previously wanted to be a US Marine and still had military aspirations. I was attracted to the guns, gear, and camaraderie, which was what drew me to the military too. Since I had a fall out with the Marine recruiter and I thought civil militias were legitimate, I actually thought forming one would be a legitimate form of military service. 

 

So, as the debate over the militias raged in the media, I found myself listening to a talk radio show in L.A. hosted by a guy with an English accent named Michael Jackson. He was discussing the militias and in my bold youthfulness, I called-in to defend the militias, even claiming that I was a militiaman. I was incensed that Americans were so ignorant that they didn't realize that militias were part of their heritage and perfectly viable. I was going to defend them. I didn't interview well, but made it over the airwaves nonetheless. And in truth, I wasn't really in a militia... It was all conceptual. Yup! I lied folks.

 

So, here's the thing. All states actually prohibit privately organized militias from actively serving their states. And the assumption that a standing military could not be organized in the U.S. (a claim of many militiamen) is actually false. While there was a suspicion of standing armies in the founding era, it was tempered by the 2nd Amendment, which permitted that states could defend themselves free of a nationalized military, which was a check on tyranny. It didn't mean that the Feds were barred from militarizing. 

 

So, what of these militias?

 

Founders like the anti-federalist George Mason rightfully claimed that the militias were simply the people; however, it was unrealistic that everyone serve, so only those of a certain age and ability were deemed the regulated militia, which Alexander Hamilton described in Federalist Paper # 29. It was the responsibility of the states' governments to regulate, train, equip, and standardize their forces. In short, militias served the states' governments and were not organized by Joe Blow and his gun-buddies in the back woods shooting off their AR-15s. 

 

Many people assumed the National Guard replaced the state militias, and for some states, this is a practical reality, as many states have no active state military. But there are still twenty-two states with active state defense forces, such as the California State Military Department's State Guard (aka California State Military Reserve: https://calguard.ca.gov/csg/) or the New York Navel Militia (dmna.ny.gov). These folks are not the National Guard or federalized troops. They are completely state militias. 

 

Under 10 U.S. Code § 246, the militia of the US consists of the organized and unorganized troops. The organized militias are the one's organized under federal standards and serve the needs of the state (the National Guard). They are technically members of the US Army or Air Force, but serve on a reserve basis in their state to serve the needs of the state first, which means that the states may employ them like a state militia, but they can be federalized in times of war. The National Guard was not founded until the early twentieth-century. 

 

The unorganized militias are a facsimile of the originally intended militias as they are state-operated entities. They are organized by the states, but are not organized by the US government and cannot be federalized. Every state has some constitutional recognition of such militias, though less than half operate active units. 

 

The point is simple: the militias that run around the woods in mismatched camouflage shooting their pew pews are NOT the militias laid out in the Constitution. They are at best gun clubs, and at worst -- potential vigilantes or terrorists. Sorry Michigan and Idaho, your many groups are not the militias of the 2nd Amendment. Too bad, so sad.