Our Constitution provides for the control of the militia (in the historical context the able body citizens not excused service and not in the government) while in Federal service or while in the service of a state.
Bands of citizens acting in concert while armed and not acting as our laws provide for the militia would not tolerate by any chief executive of any government. Such bands would be armed bands acting violently and outside of national control -- the classic definition of bandits or rebels (in the case of Lebanon we have both kinds of actions). The militia is essentially a passive organization which should operate only when called by proper authority or in a dire emergency but still under the authority extablished by a government. So, a posse formed to chase bandits should be sworn to their duty by competent authority such as a sheriff. A groups of citizens responding to an emergency such as the raid on town banks, like the Great Northfield (Minnesota) 1876 raid by the James-Younger gangs, might operate for a while in defense of the town without being formally sworn and might even coordinate as a militia unit, but once the emergency is past, they would have to operate under competent authority to be legal is my guess. If you actually talked to Ms. Rice, I bet that is what she meant. Lebanon is not close to Switzerland or the US. BTW -- I think the Swiss militia might be closer to the National Guard than our unorganized militia. Phil Lee > While the diplomatic language may have been adopted without due > consideration of the historic constitutional implications and how it could > be misunderstood in that context, we need to point out this out to them. We > can't depend on them to figure it out for themselves if we don't provide > feedback. The Bush Administration and Dr. Rice have made similar comments > critical of the Minuteman Project, which is a domestic issue. > > Traditionally, domestic law enforcement was militia. The emergence of > full-time professional law enforcement agents and the displacement of > militia for that purpose is not a development the Founders would have viewed > favorably. > > -- Jon > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > Our efforts depend on donations from people like you. Directions > for donors are at http://www.constitution.org/whatucando.htm > Constitution Society 7793 Burnet Road #37, Austin, TX 78757 > 512/374-9585 www.constitution.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Get your free digital certificate from http://www.thawte.com > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > _______________________________________________ > To post, send message to [email protected] > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof > > Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others. > > -- The Art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike at him as hard as you can and as often as you can, and keep moving on. -- Ulysses S. Grant _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
