It's no more stupid than the belief that Americans need the right to bear firearms so they can form "militias" against the government!

The point is that advanced civilised democracies don't need alarmed militias to resolve differences. They hold debates and elections instead

garysher wrote:When do you suppose that will happen?

I was wondering the same... We're discussing reality... he's off in the world of SciFi / Fantasy...

And that's the problem with private militias as I see it. Who *does* decide whether it's the right kind of militia, or not?

The free market I suppose... Militias with community support will grow and prosper, those without... won't...

Although, I suppose that could lead to bad things to...

I think youngsters need a place where they can learn disipline, respect and community service. A milita -- as ideally described -- might be a good vehicle for this. But as others have pointed out, the "milita" concept can also attract the wrong crowd, and you end up with a bunch of reactionary rednecks.

I agree totally, MtM; but we must also remember that the discipline, repect, and community service values that you mentioned and more have to start being taught at home.

That why you don't just allow anyone to join,rather it a reactionary redneck, nor a anti-American liberal...

People seem to forget the "well regulated" part. No one is for bands of whackos with guns running around... We are talking about community run civil defense groups...

Professor Page Smith wrote of Militia and how it worked during the Adams administration. The Adams administration had laid a direct tax upon the property of landowners in the form of a tax upon the size and number of windows in the dwellings on the property. The Constitution of the United States required that direct taxes be laid upon the States, not the States' inhabitants. Mr. Smith wrote that "Often the first a prospective taxpayer knew of the impending tax was the sight of an assessor walking around his house counting and measuring his windows. ...When efforts were made at various meeting places to explain the nature and purposes of the tax, groups of angry farmers shouted down the assessors and threatened to tar and feather them. Assessors bold enough to try to carry out their jobs had dogs set on them and scalding water poured on their heads. When the assessors combined their forces at the town of Milford, the local militia were called out and John Fries was chosen to command them. Fries intercepted the assessors at a local tavern and ordered them out of the county. When they persisted in 'taking the rates', two of them were seized by the militia at Quakertown and imprisoned. In Pennsylvania's Lehigh County efforts to arrest those who refused to allow their property to be assessed were forcibly resisted. Finally a federal marshal succeeded in arresting half a dozen of the resisters, and they were sent under guard to Bethlehem where the less militant were released on parole and the rest were confined at the Sun Tavern. Word of the arrests aroused the country roundabout, and a company of several hundred farmers proceeded to Bethlehem to free the prisoners. There they ordered the marshal to release his charges on the threat of burning down the town; when he delayed, the crowd freed the men to the accompaniment of exultant cheers."