User:Jon Roland/Constitutional militia movement-071105

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The term constitutional militia movement has been used to refer to privately organized citizen groups that support establishment or restoration of a militia system for their nation or part therefo; enforcement of a strict construction of the constitution of the nation or political subdivision thereof, according to their understanding of it; and if nonviolent means are not available, defense against abuses of rights by officials who exceed their authority. They assert that the right to keep and bear arms is not just a right, but that the people have a duty to be armed as deterrence against crime and governmental tyranny.^{[not in citation given][1]} As militia units they train in the proper and safe use of firearms, so that they may be effective if called upon by constitutionally compliant officials to perform that duty, or, if no official fulfills that duty, to elect their own officers.^{[citation needed]}

The most prominent such movement in modern times blossomed in the United States the mid 1990s.^[2] The supporters have not been affiliated with any government organization, although most of them have been military and law enforcement veterans. The U.S. Constitution, Art. I Sec. 8 Cl. 15 & 16, and the Second Amendment specifically provide for a militia system, which it appears the Founding Fathers intended to serve as the main force for defense and law enforcement, rather than a standing army or professional police, which some of them opposed as "select" militia not representative of the communities they might have the duty to serve.^[3]

In U.S. law, every able-bodied person has the moral duty, and a subset of them a legal duty, to respond to call-ups to respond to threats, issued by any person aware of a threat, to any one or more persons who may be available in the area. Call-ups enforceable by fines or imprisonment may be issued by the sheriff of their county,^[4] governor of their state, or the president of the United States.^[5] The threats for which the president may issue a call-up extend only to "to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions". However, state and local officials may also issue call-ups for natural disasters, such as fires, floods, earthquakes, or storms like Hurricane Katrina. Any of these officials, subject to law, may also issue call-ups for organization and training, normally using their own arms and other equipment, but sometimes with tools provided by public donations or tax funds.

In recent years^{[citation needed]} there have also been increasing calls to organize, train, and equip for such threats as terrorism, drug trafficking, and border control.^[6] This has sometimes taken the form of focused operations like neighborhood watch, or efforts like the Minuteman Project that first report violations and usually refrain from direct enforcement, as a way to embarrass the government into doing a better job. Others make a broader call for constitutional compliance in general, especially in the courts, which many see as engaged in judicial tyranny.^[7]

Contents 1 Etymology 2 Private militia-related organizations 3 Movements outside the United States 4 Controversy 5 Notes 6 See also 7 References 8 Internal Links 9 External links

[edit] Etymology

The term "militia" is derived from Latin roots:

• miles /miːles/ : soldier^[8]
• -itia /iːtia/ : a state, activity, quality or condition of being^[9][10]
• militia /mil:iːtia/: Military service^[11]

In English, the word "militia" dates to 1590 when it was recorded in a book by Sir John Smythe, Certain Discourses Military with the meanings: a military force; a body of soldiers and military affairs; a body of military discipline^[12]

The original meaning of the Latin word is "military activity", or, since the ancient Romans had the same people fight crime or respond to disasters, "defense activity". In the idiom of English during the 18th century, the same word would often be used for an activity and for those who engage in it, so "militia" could mean either defense activity or those who engage in it, whether as individuals or in concert with others.^[13]

Most of the leading Founding Fathers were Latin-literate, so they would have known the original Latin meaning, and used it when they read or wrote in Latin.^[14][15]

[edit] Private militia-related organizations

This section does not cite any references or sources. (October 2007) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

In the absence of initiative from officials, private citizens often engage in activities and form organizations to fill a perceived unmet need. Some of these are:

• Private militia groups organized into county units with the county sheriff serving as county militia commander, if he is willing, or election of a commander by those who attend musters if not. Most private militia groups are armed or espouse the use of arms.
• Some (mostly U.S.) groups espouse political protest and peaceful means of bringing about political change, and take up arms only for traditional or ideological reasons, as a protest against oppression or restrictions on such activities, or as deterrence or a warning to officials to refrain from oppressive actions.
• Advocates of resurrecting a traditional militia system in which all able-bodied persons will be required to be organized, trained, and equipped to meet various threats.
• Shooting clubs, which seek to encourage the safe and effective use of firearms for defense and hunting.
• Scouting, originally conceived as a way to impart military skills and discipline to young people.
• Historical reenactors, who encourage the development of military skills by reenacting historical armed conflicts.
• Parade and drill clubs, which train their members in parade and drill skills, and perform at public events. Related to marching bands.
• Disaster response groups, such as the Red Cross and ham radio groups, and volunteer fire departments.
• Neighborhood watch, police auxiliary, and sheriff's posse groups.
• Survival groups, who try to prepare people to survive in various situations.
• Military schools, which combine academic education of the young with the instilling of military skills and discipline.
• Veterans groups, who seek to maintain the legacy of their service.
• Security guard and bail enforcement organizations.
• Private investigators, especially when they investigate criminal activity.
• Protective groups formed to protect investigative journalists, whistleblowers, and others who seek to expose wrongdoing.

[edit] Movements outside the United States

There appear to be few movements outside the United States that train to arms as part of an effort to enforce constitutional compliance, defend against infringements of constitutional rights by officials, or seek the organization of a militia system for their countries.^{[citation needed]} Public awareness or understanding of their own constitutions, when they have one, is often weak, and dissidents that emerge seldom appeal to their countrymen to unite for constitutional compliance. ^{[citation needed]} They tend to form separatist movements or other kinds of insurgencies,^{[citation needed]} or reform groups that focus on particular areas of constitutional compliance, such as honest elections, or removals or prosecutions of particular offending officials.

[edit] Controversy

From the inception of the modern movement there has been controversy over whether the movement was an important part of a complete response to many important threats, or a threat in itself. Both protagonists and antagonists have emerged in all parts of society.

One of the key controversies has been over whether to aggregate almost all groups containing two or more persons with arms training to their use,^[16] into a single "militia movement", or, because there many groups with diverse goals, agendas, and activities, to disaggregate them into multiple movements, based more on the way they self-identify than on the ways they may be characterized by outsiders or opponents. One FBI report, Project Megiddo, offered the "guideline: (1) a militia is a domestic organization with two or more members; (2) the organization must possess and use firearms; and (3) the organization must conduct or encourage paramilitary training." On the other hand, another FBI report^[17] provided guidance for the meetings between FBI agents and militia activists beginning in May, 1995, in which the FBI differentiated among many kinds of armed groups and distinguished "constitutional militia" from "hate groups".^[18]

The controversy deepened in 1995 following the Oklahoma City bombing beginning with an appearance on CNN by former FBI agent Oliver "Buck" Revelle in which he pointed the finger of suspicion on the "militia movement". This was later amplified, after the arrest of Timothy McVeigh, by reports that McVeigh was a "member" of a "militia", without the corrections, that he had been ejected from the only militia meeting he had ever attended, receiving the same attention.^{[citation needed]}

The constitutional militia movement has drawn professional critics. Mark Pitcavage wrote this about it:

"The movement's ideology has led some adherents to commit criminal acts, including stockpiling illegal weapons and explosives and plotting to destroy buildings or assassinate public officials, as well as lesser confrontations."^[19].

However, defenders argue that such critics are disingenuously combining individuals and groups holding disparate views and engaged in disparate activities, and trying to demonize them all by focusing on the alleged misconduct of a few, presumably to present them all as a threat to which they can point in their fundraising efforts. Many of the leading critics are associated with the Anti-Defamation League,^[20] considered by its own critics to have an agenda that involves unfairly criticizing others, especially those that criticize governmental corruption and abuse.

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

• Militia
• Militia (United States)
• Dissident movements
• American Revolution
• Police misconduct
• Prosecutorial misconduct
• Judicial misconduct

Activities or movements with which it is sometimes allied

• Constitutional restoration movement
• Fully informed jury movement
• Gun rights movement
• Tax protest movement (income tax)
• Border control movement
• Ballot reform movement
• Legal practice reform movements
• Judicial reform movement
• Anti-terrorism movement
• Land rights movements
• Libertarian movement

Movements with which there has been some crossover of individual participants, but that are not synonymous

• Patriot movement

Movements with which it is sometimes confused, perhaps deliberately

• Christian identity movement
• Secession movements
• Anti-immigration movements
• Ku Klux Klan
• Racist movements
• Black Panther movement

[edit] References

• Robert H. Churchill, Department of Humanities, University of Hartford:

• "Shaking Their Guns in the Tyrant's Face": Guns, Violence, and Belonging Within the Constitutional Militia Movement, paper presented to the October 10, 2003, convention of the American Studies Association.
• "Arming for the Last Battle: Secular and Religious Millennial Impulses within the Militia Movement", 1999 Annual Conference of the Center for Millennial Studies, Boston University, Boston, MA, November 9, 1999. Online copy
• "Manly Firmness, the Duty of Resistance, and the Search for a Middle Way: Democratic Republicans Confront the Alien and Sedition Acts", 1999 Annual Meeting of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, Lexington, KY, July 17, 1999. Online copy
• Also see his upcoming book.

• James Biser Whisker, retired professor of political science, West Virginia University:

• The Militia, by James B. Whisker, Edwin Mellen Pr. (1992) ISBN 0773495533. Online copy
• The American Colonial Militia, 1606-1785], by James B. Whisker, Edwin Mellen Pr. (1997) ISBN 0773485201. Online copy
• The Rise and Decline of the American Militia System, by James B. Whisker, Susquehanna University Press (1999) ISBN 094563692X
• James B. Whisker, The Citizen-Soldier Under Federal and State Law, 94 W. Va. L. Rev. 947, 954-56 (1992). Describes the militia system that existed in the colonies prior to and during the revolution. At 952-54: As early as the seventh century, England had developed a militia system, requiring even the lowest class of freemen to maintain arms and be subject to a call for military duty. Id. Henry II enacted the first formal declaration of this principle with the "Assize of Arms" of 1181. The "Assize of Arms" required that every freeman provide his own arms, train periodically, and defend his country when called upon. Id. This system had in turn developed from the Roman use of citizen-soldiers during the period of the early Republic. At 954-55: If a militiaman could not afford an appropriate weapon for service, some colonies provided a credit system such that the government would furnish a weapon with a forgiving debt repayment plan, n.32. Online copy

• Don B. Kates, Jr., Handgun Prohibition and the Original Meaning of the Second Amendment, 82 Mich. L. Rev. 204, 267-68 (1983). Reprinted as monograph ISBN 0911475249.
• Stephen P. Halbrook, That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right, Independent Institute (March 1, 1994) ISBN 0945999380.
• Stephen P. Halbrook, A Right to Bear Arms: State and Federal Bills of Rights and Constitutional Guarantees, Greenwood Press ISBN 0313265399.
• Stephen P. Halbrook, Swiss and the NAZIs: How the Alpine Republic Survived in the Shadow of the Third Reich, Casemate (May 2006) ISBN 1932033424. Revised version of Target Switzerland, Da Capo (December 1, 2003) ISBN 0306813254.
• David B. Kopel, Supreme Court Gun Cases, Bloomfield Press (September 2, 2003) ISBN 1889632058.
• Larry Pratt, Safeguarding Liberty: The Constitution and Citizens Militias, Legacy Communications (May 1, 1995) ISBN 188069218X.
• Larry Pratt & Morgan Norval, The Militia in Twentieth Century America: A Symposium, Gun Owners Foundation (June 1985) ISBN 0317197959.
• Clayton E. Cramer, For the Defense of Themselves and the State: The Original Intent and Judicial Interpretation of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Praeger Publishers (May 30, 1994) ISBN 0275949133.
• H. Richard Uviller, H. Richard Uviller, & William G. Merkel, The Militia and the Right to Arms, or, How the Second Amendment Fell Silent, Duke University Press (January 2002) ISBN 0822330172.
• William H. Riker, Soldiers of the States (1979) Describes how Congress created the National Guard to replace the previous state militia systems. The basic equipment the colonies expected militiamen to provide depended upon their service: infantrymen brought muskets with powder and shot, while cavalrymen brought their own horses and sabers, at 12.
• Keith A. Ehrman & Dennis A. Henigan, The Second Amendment in the Twentieth Century: Have You Seen Your Militia Lately?, 15 U. Dayton L. Rev. 5, 8 (1989). At 15 describes the colonial view that standing armies were acceptable only under extraordinary circumstances.
• Ralph J. Rohner, The Right to Bear Arms: A Phenomenon of Constitutional History, 16 Cath. U. L. Rev. 53, 56-57 (1966). Notes that the drafters of the Constitution would be unlikely to vote for any provisions likely to create a large professional army.
• Akhil R. Amar, The Bill of Rights as a Constitution, 100 Yale L.J. 1131, 1168 (1991).
• Saul Cornell, A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America, Oxford University Press, USA (June 14, 2006) ISBN 0195147863. Argues that the Founders understood the right to bear arms as neither an individual nor a collective right, but as a civic right--an obligation citizens owed to the state to arm themselves so that they could participate in a well regulated militia.
• Sanford Levinson, The Embarrassing Second Amendment, 99 Yale L. J. 637, 656-57 (1989).

[edit] Internal Links

• Michigan Militia
• Ranch Rescue
• Minuteman Project

[edit] External links

• United States Militia Association

[[Category:Militias [[Category:Gun politics [[Category:Gun politics in the United States [[Category:State Defense Forces of the United States [[Category:Military history of the United States