Quote:
Originally Posted by AmateurEmale
@gaeldom: Thank you for civilly debating this issue.
I should tell you that when I began my political activism in the middle 1990s (1994-96) I had the good fortune to meet two militia commanders, an acquaintance of my extended family named Gary, and a black male named J.J. Johnson, who was himself married to Dr. Nancy Lord, 1992 V.P. candidate of the Libertarian Party. [!] They are not "gun nuts" as conventionally understood, merely guys who were freethinkers and concerned with the vanishing Bill of Rights protections in the U.S. Neither man struck me as crazy or violent, either. In fact, J.J. had a sense of humor about Ross Perot: "Thank God he didn't win!"
Now, in response to gaeldom's question, according to the Militia Act, every able-bodied American (not sure if it's just males anymore, if women can now be in combat) is technically a part of the militia, and in a national emergency the Militia(s) of the United States would be called out. I'm not entirely sure if the law specifies it has to be a public militia such as the State National Guards, or if reputable private militias such as the Ohio Military Reserve or Ohio Unorganized Militia would join in. Remember, as recently as Iraq in the early 2000s, the U.S. Government was sending "private military contractors" and "private security forces" overseas. Yet because my cousin's ex- was in the National Guard, his unit was eventually deployed to Afghanistan.
I personally would like to see private militias taking over most of the function of the National Guard and/or standing army, because the Founding Fathers thought standing armies suspect. And no, I don't think we'd see more crime and violence in a society where Americans could open-carry battle rifles or handguns. As Robert Heinlein once said, "An armed society is a polite society."
|
The National Guard and state militias are two separate entities. The NG did not exist until 1902, and most states, including the one I live in, still have a state militia in existence. In my state the law reads that the militia answers to the Governor and cannot be used outside of the geographic bounds of the state. Doesn't sound like the National Guard does it?
I should also add why the National Guard was created. Before the Civil War the US standing army was actually quite small...like 16,000. The accepted practice was that, in the time of war, the states would activate their militias, the Federal government would then nationalize them, and they would join up with the regular standing army and march off to fight. But, at the start of the Civil War, when Lincoln nationalized the states militias, several states refused to let the Federal government have them. It was mostly what are now midwestern states...Indiana, Illinois, Ohio. They were afraid that, if they let their militias march off to the east, and the Confederacy attacked them, they would be defenseless. That's why the National Guard was created.