Those Extremist Militias

Over at Oleg’s blog there’s this comment, in Russian, to this post about Survival4Chicks;



Извините, что не по теме, но из России трудно оценивать различные американские явления.


Например, не ясно, что представляет из себя движение Militias.


Его часто описывают как экстремистское, но относится ли это ко всем , кто входит в различные негосударственные ополчения?


И второй вопрос:


Не способствует ли появлению Militias тот факт, что Национальная Гвардия фактически перестала быть “домашней армией”, объединяющей живущих по соседству людей, которые готовы к мгновенной мобилизации для защиты именно своих дворов и улиц?


Не слишком ли бюрократизировалась и оторвалась от улиц Национальная Гвардия?


Не потому ли удается так легко “обрабатывать” людей самозванным Militias?



Извините за беспокойство


Apparently he got his view of America from ABC/NBC/CBS, AKA the Old Media, AKA the Lamestream Media.  I stepped in with the following comment, trying to set the record straight.  I wanted to keep it short and to the point, hopefully without over-simplification.  If I’m mistaken in any of this, let me know;



Traditionally, and by the intent of the American founders, the militia in this country consists of regular citizens with their own arms and equipment.  They receive no pay, as the intent was to keep government influence upon the society to a minimum, thereby keeping government power from growing out of control and becoming destructive to liberty.


Some militias gather in groups of various sizes to train, while most either train on their own or not at all.  Some militia groups are organized, with a headquarters and a command structure, and others are very informal, but have a common interest in fostering marksmanship among the population generally.  Many years ago, our Congress formed a Civilian Marksmanship Program for that purpose.  The CMP sells military surplus arms at very low prices to any regular citizen who can demonstrate that he or she has attended some number of organized marksmanship events.


Many militia members have no arms or equipment, but since they are citizens they are militia according to our nation’s founding principles.  Some of them actively lobby for the restriction of the right to keep and bear arms.  Hence they are citizens actively working against the citizenry.

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