Militia movement
From RationalWiki
The militia movement is a subculture within the United States consisting primarily of disaffected conservative white rural Christians who believe that the Federal government's authority is either broadly abused or outright null and void.
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[edit] Well regulated?
They draw their name from the "well-regulated militia" clause of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution[1] (generally interpreted by others to mean bodies such as the National Guard, assembled and regulated by the states or the Feds), and many have ties with White nationalism and tax protester groups.
[edit] Legality of militias
Most militia groups claim direct lineage from Revolutionary War groups such as the Minutemen, and at least a few claim to be available to their states for defense purposes. However, many, if not most, states have laws against private armies -- and any sort of paramilitary organization not directly authorized by state or federal government; in fact, legally speaking, the National Guard, not any sort of citizen militia, is considered the "organized militia" under US law, and to the extent that there is a citizen (or "unorganized") militia, it is a legal fiction used to bridge a gap in federal law declaring all able-bodied males between 18 and 45 to be part of the "militia". (Should the "unorganized militia" need to be called to service, one might presume that the proper way to do so would be to enact a draft using the Selective Service infrastructure.)
[edit] Modern times
The militia movement's strongest period (as monitored by the Anti-Defamation League[2] and the Southern Poverty Law Center[3]) was during the mid-1990s during the Clinton administration, and much of its ideological motivation came from perceived injustices perpetuated by governmental authority in cases such as Ruby Ridge and Waco. The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 resulted in publicity that may have adversely affected militia membership rolls.
It is thought in some quarters that the movement is reviving due to controversies over illegal immigration and increased attacks on Constitutional liberties under the Bush administration. What they might achieve in either case is up for discussion.
[edit] See also
- Posse Comitatus, the loosely-defined white supremacist group that provided much of militia ideology
- Citizen's Rule Book, a pamphelet on jury nullification that shows much of the militia POV on legal issues such as common law
- Second Amendment, the thing that makes them, in their own special way, right.
- Gun, (probably) the real reason they do it: because they're obsessed with looking cool while carrying assault weaponary.
[edit] External links
- ADL Militia Watchdog archives (site put on ice in 2000)
- ADL paper on the revival of the militia movement
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
- ↑ http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/Militia_M.asp?xpicked=4&item=19
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Southern Poverty Law Center.
