This post is in response to the South­ern Povery Law Center’s report that there has been an increase in “anti-government” militias, due to the elec­tion of the first black pres­i­dent.   They also chose to lump every per­son who dis­agrees the the cur­rent Administration’s poli­cies in with a few peo­ple who decided to ter­ror­ize people.

First off, let me quote from the Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence:

WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are cre­ated equal, that they are endowed by their Cre­ator with cer­tain unalien­able Rights, that among these are Life, Lib­erty, and the Pur­suit of Hap­pi­ness– That to secure these Rights, Gov­ern­ments are insti­tuted among Men, deriv­ing their just Pow­ers from the Con­sent of the Gov­erned, that when­ever any Form of Gov­ern­ment becomes destruc­tive of these Ends, it is the Right of the Peo­ple to alter or to abol­ish it, and to insti­tute new Gov­ern­ment, lay­ing its Foun­da­tion on such Prin­ci­ples, and orga­niz­ing its Pow­ers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Hap­pi­ness.  Pru­dence, indeed, will dic­tate that Gov­ern­ments long estab­lished should not be changed for light and tran­sient Causes; and accord­ingly all Expe­ri­ence hath shewn, that Mankind are more dis­posed to suf­fer, while Evils are suf­fer­able, than to right them­selves by abol­ish­ing the Forms to which they are accus­tomed.  But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpa­tions, pur­su­ing invari­ably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despo­tism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Gov­ern­ment, and to pro­vide new Guards for their future Secu­rity.  [empha­sis mine]

Read that whole state­ment.  It says that when­ever any form of gov­ern­ment becomes destruc­tive, the Peo­ple have the right to “alter or abol­ish it”.  It also says that this should not be done for super­fi­cial rea­sons; but when a long his­tory of abuse by the gov­ern­ment leads to absolute despo­tism — a form of gov­ern­ment by either an indi­vid­ual or tightly knit group which rules with absolute polit­i­cal power — then it’s the people’s right to stand up against such tyranny.

Our Con­sti­tu­tion dic­tates exactly what the fed­eral government’s role should be in reg­u­lat­ing armed services:

• To declare War, grant let­ters of Mar­que and Reprisal, and make Rules con­cern­ing Cap­tures on Land and Water;
• To raise and sup­port Armies, but no appro­pri­a­tion of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two years;
• To pro­vide and main­tain a Navy; 
• To make Rules for the Gov­ern­ment and Reg­u­la­tion of the land and naval Forces;
• To pro­vide for call­ing forth the Mili­tia to exe­cute the Laws of the Union, sup­press Insur­rec­tions and repel Invasions;
• To pro­vide for orga­niz­ing, arm­ing, and dis­ci­plin­ing, the Mili­tia, and for gov­ern­ing such Part of them as may be employed in the Ser­vice of the United States, reserv­ing to the States respec­tively, the Appoint­ment of the Offi­cers, and the author­ity of train­ing the Mili­tia accord­ing to the dis­ci­pline pre­scribed by Congress;…

The states were sup­posed to select the mili­tia and its offi­cers.  Unfor­tu­nately today that is no longer the case (just look at our National Guard). 

It should be noted that when our coun­try was still a colony, our found­ing fathers orga­nized mili­tias in direct sub­ver­sion to the rul­ing gov­ern­ment of the time — Great Britain and King George III.   The found­ing fathers had enough fore­sight to pro­vide We the Peo­ple with the right to do the same, as long as we do not break any com­mon laws.  If any mili­tia is break­ing the law, then they are crim­i­nals and should be dealt with accordingly.

Mike John­son, of the North Cen­tral Florida Regional Mili­tia, wrote the following:

The well reg­u­lated mili­tias whose offi­cers were appointed by the State gov­ern­ments, and whose train­ing was the respon­si­bil­ity of the State gov­ern­ments have ceased to exist. The National Guard does not fill that bill as its offi­cers are appointed by the national gov­ern­ment and more and more we are see­ing the national gov­ern­ment either dis­band­ing National Guard units  or employ­ing them over­seas. The net result is to ren­der them inef­fec­tive as any sort of check over the power of the national gov­ern­ment. We have also seen that the State level gov­ern­ments as a rule do not seem to want to recre­ate their Con­sti­tu­tional State Mili­tias. Indeed, more often than not, the State level gov­ern­ments per­mit them­selves to be sub­or­di­nated to a greater and greater degree to the national level gov­ern­ment. Hence, the most effec­tive check that the Found­ing Fathers placed on the power of the national level gov­ern­ment has all but dis­ap­peared. 
    Given that this is the case, those peo­ple who see the prob­lems in this sit­u­a­tion have lit­tle choice but to exer­cise their rights as the Found­ing Fathers did ini­tially and orga­nize mili­tia units regard­less of the level of sup­port or hos­til­ity that they receive from their national, state and local gov­ern­ments. The alter­na­tive is to per­mit your­self to be ren­dered all but help­less to reply to the threat of sig­nif­i­cant mil­i­tary force in any rea­son­able manner.

He also says, how­ever, “Real­ize that if you are set­ting your­selves up to be the defend­ers of the Con­sti­tu­tion and the Com­mon Law, then you are bound by their dictates.”

In a word, they are legal — as long as they abide by what our Found­ing Fathers intended them for.  The whole pur­pose was to guard against inva­sion or a strong, despotic fed­eral gov­ern­ment.  And right now, I believe our fed­eral gov­ern­ment is on a slip­pery slope.  Our Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and Sen­a­tors do not lis­ten to us.  Our voices in Wash­ing­ton are not being heard.  That is why the lat­est “town hall meet­ings” have been shout­ing matches.  Peo­ple are dis­gusted and frus­trated.  I truly hope that those in Wash­ing­ton will wake up and do what they were elected to do:  rep­re­sent their con­stituents.  Oth­er­wise, we may have another rev­o­lu­tion on the hori­zon.  And I hope that is not the case.

For fur­ther read­ing, go here:  Mod­ern Militias