"We've got to dismantle the NRA," urges filmmaker Spike Lee. "It's time
to rethink [the Second Amendment]..." says Mia Farrow. "I think [the Second
Amendment] is in the Constitution so we can have muskets when the British
people come over in 1800," opines talk-show host Rosie O'Donnell.
It's unanimous. The chic, the pompous, the fashionable and the trendy
have ruled on Americans' right to keep and bear arms. And they've decided we
don't need it. Even conservative pundit George Will has joined the chorus.
"Whatever right the Second Amendment protects is not as important as it was
200 years ago..." he says.
But why isn't it? What has changed, in America, to obviate the need for a
citizen's militia, that once-proud institution bequeathed to us by our
Founding Fathers?
The standard answer is that redcoats and Indians no longer threaten us.
Maybe not, but these were never the gravest threats to our liberty anyway. In
his book That Every Man Be Armed, constitutional scholar Stephen P.
Halbrook demonstrates that, during the drafting of the Second Amendment, what
worried the Framers most was the danger that our own government might run
amok.
The Framers differed only in their opinions on how best to counter this
threat. The Federalists claimed that the problem would solve itself, since
the militia - consisting of all able-bodied men, ages 16 through 60 - would
overthrow any tyranny that arose.
"The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword,"
argued Noah Webster, "because the whole body of the people are armed..."
The anti-Federalists, however, pointed out that Congress could disband
the general militia and replace it with a "select militia", loyal only to the
government. "When a select militia is formed; the people in general may be
disarmed," warned John Smilie at the Pennsylvania convention.
To prevent this from happening, the anti-Federalists demanded a Bill of
Rights, which would guarantee, among other things, an unalienable right to
keep and bear arms. "The great object is that every man be armed...,"
declared Patrick Henry. "Everyone who is able may have a gun." Congress would
thus be powerless to disband the militia.
In theory, we still have a militia today, which the Supreme Court defined
as "all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense"
(United States vs. Miller, 1939). But most of our "militiamen" no longer
bother to arm themselves or to drill in units.
We have surrendered that responsibility to a "select militia" of National
Guardsmen, Army reservists, FBI SWAT teams and Delta Force commandos. Just
as the anti-Federalists predicted, our failure to exercise our militia rights
has resulted in a rapid erosion of those rights. If the current drive to ban
assault weapons is successful, U.S. citizens will be stripped, for the first
time, of the right to keep and bear military arms.
"Well, so what?" argue the gun abolitionists. "Assault rifles are
dangerous. If everyone had one, our streets would be war zones."
But would they? That hasn't happened in Switzerland. There, every
able-bodied man between the ages of 20 and 42 serves in the militia, and is
required by law to keep a Sturmgewehr 90 assault rifle at home, ready for
action.
While the rest of Europe reels from wars, riots, ethnic cleansings,
tumbling governments, terrorism and crime waves, the Swiss enjoy peace,
prosperity and a crime rate lower than England's.
What about the threat of tyranny, so real and troubling to our Founding
Fathers? Don't we need a militia to guard against aspiring Caesars? No, say
the gun-grabbers.
"I do not see a time when we Americans will need our guns at home to
stage a coup to reclaim our democracy," writes muckraker Jack Anderson, in
his anti-gun screed Inside the NRA.
Let us pray Anderson is correct. But his own writings belie Anderson's
optimism. In 1984, he reported a serious attempt by General Louis O.
Giuffrida to usurp our democracy.
Giuffrida was then head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA), empowered with coordinating government responses to emergencies.
According to Anderson, Giuffrida rewrote the rules to give FEMA - and thus
himself - near-dictatorial power, in the event of a crisis.
Giuffrida prepared "stand-by" legislation enabling the White House, in
times of peril, to suspend the Bill of Rights, confiscate property,
nationalize industry and censor all communications. FEMA would then be
appointed to run the country.
Major media ignored Anderson’s sensational charges. But Giuffrida
soon resigned amid a flurry of petty allegations ranging from sweetheart
deals with contractors to paying his wife's travel expenses with government
funds.
Giuffrida may be gone, but contingency plans for martial rule continue to
proliferate. Some of these plans may include the use of "select militias", of
just the sort the anti-Federalists feared.
In a February 26, 1985 article in the Village Voice, James
Ridgeway reported that Giuffrida advocated the creation of "state defense
forces" of armed volunteers, under the authority of "state area commands"
(STARCS). Charged with keeping order during emergencies, these irregular
units could easily evolve into Latin American-style death squads.
Should it ever be implemented, Giuffrida's vision of "state defense
forces" would fulfill the direst warnings of the anti-Federalists; a "select
militia", under federal authority, preying at will on a disarmed populace.
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty," warned Patrick Henry.
"...nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that
force, you are ruined."
Through an endless series of gun-control "compromises", we Americans have
come perilously close to the "ruin" that Patrick Henry predicted. Yet there
is hope. The Swiss have proved that a well-trained and well-equipped militia
can defend a modern state. For a generation stricken with "Private Ryan"
guilt, the rebuilding of our lawful and constitutionally-mandated militia
would be a worthy project indeed.
___________________________________________________
Richard Poe is a freelance journalist and a New York Times-bestselling
author. His latest book is WAVE 4. Poe's Website appears at RichardPoe.com.
