We Need a Plan for Militias
We Need a Plan for Militias
A social trend can lie dormant for years, gradually expand and then suddenly explode as if following a hidden exponential growth curve. Revolutions work this way, and so do religious cults. Most of the time the curve is nipped in its early phase, but not always. It isn’t a good idea to assume a fringe movement will always remain fringe.
This brings us to the topic of right-wing militias, people who carry assault rifles, study military tactics, go target-shooting in the woods and live in an end-times epistemological bubble. They’ve been around for decades, occasionally getting in the news, and gradually getting more numerous and influential. Read this recent report in the New York Times, which documents the mainstreaming of armed freelancers aligned with the Michigan Republican Party, and ask yourself whether we are approaching an inflection point.
So what would a counter-strategy look like? I don’t think an attempt to suppress all extreme right-wing thought and expression would work—it’s too unfocused—and in any case empowering the government and tech monopolies to carry it out would be suicidal for free thinkers of any sort. The answer has to center on the militias themselves.
I suggest gun control legislation at the state and national levels that explicitly target militias. The idea is that it would be a felony to use firearms for any political purpose, where “use” means carry as well as pull the trigger. No arms at demonstrations or rallies and armed political meetings. No “second amendment solutions” to political conflicts. I’ll leave the legal language to the lawyers.
Simply discussing such an idea would drive the militia folks crazy. It’s their worst nightmare, liberals taking their guns away to prevent any resistance to their politically correct tyranny. They will fulminate and foam, waving their guns in our faces. Let them, and let their threats of violence be a reason for suppressing them.
Another focus should be on monitoring social media in order to find these people before they act.
Like:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/six-arrested-federal-charge-conspiracy-kidnap-governor-michigan
I believe private militias are prohibited in every state. There are laws on the books to jail/fine the organizers. One of the issues at the federal level has been the fallout from Waco and Ruby Ridge. Funny how there is no fall out when labor strikers get gunned down or black people under any circumstance, but shoot a couple of armed white militia members and all hell breaks loose. There are people trying to make a martyr out of that loon who was killed climbing through the window at the Capital. We can put the militias in their place without any constitutionally suspect laws concerning firearms—remember who makes up the SCOTUS these days. We just have to have the will.
please note that weapons cost money. expensive weapons can easily be obtained by wealthy people. do you see how this works?
to reduce militia to a reasonable level you first reduce the inequality. do not reduce production by taxing corporations payrolls and capital gains. instead, you reduce inequality by taxing real property, much of which it’s owned by very wealthy foreigners, wealthy foreigners with enough money to support the militia.
save America for Americans! hell, Americans have I earned it. let’s have a real property federal tax that will reduce inequality.
get
it
!
Peter:
Trust me when I say I am not liked here in Michigan.
Here in Michigan, dogs are more restricted than gun owners who like to prance around in public with their guns and bullet-spewing-weapons (you use this description to eliminate the argument of automatic vs semi-automatic vs single action. The reader knows you are talking about all bullet-spewing-weapons). We have to license a dog yearly unless you get the three year license and they must have their rabies shot too. To carry a rifle in public, you do not need to be licensed.
Republican Senate Majority leader Shirkey is an ass. Both he and House Speaker Chatfield went to Washington to have a private conversation with Trump and to sip champagne in the lobby of the Trump International hotel. Nothing was said about their visit and what was talked about. Lately, Shirkey is calling the trump organized attack on the capitol a hoax. Both he and the House Speaker have been slow walking the Federal aid through the legislature and blaming Whitmer for delays.
Repubs have owned the Michigan Senate since 1983. Repubs have owned the Michigam House 85% of the time since 1990. Michigan Repubs have had 2 trifectas since 1990 with two of three Governors up till Whitmer. If Michigan is in trouble, follow the trail.
Repubs did put in place alternate Electoral Voters who were denied entry to the State Capitol the day of the certification count.. I am pretty sure they were in Washington D.C. also and just in case they were needed.
Soon to be the head of the Michigan Republican party, Meshawn Maddock is a trip. Her husband, Matt Maddock, the owner of a bail bond business who has boasted of personally apprehending bail jumpers, is a state lawmaker from a Detroit suburb.
Ms. Maddock organized the protest of cars and trucks jammed the streets around the Statehouse in Lansing, in what she called Operation Gridlock. About 150 demonstrators left their vehicles to chant “lock her up” from the Capitol lawn using the resurrected and now old 2016 battle cry of action against Hillary Clinton, against Ms. Whitmer. A few waved Confederate flags. About a dozen heavily armed members of the Michigan Liberty Militia turned up as well.
Anyhoo, just a bit of history.
One should never back an armed man into a corner if one is not themselves strapped, drawn, and locked and loaded.
That said then I much prefer a ban on the private possession of all automatic and semiautomatic arms. Of course then I have only carried such myself while I served in the US Army from 1969 to 1971. I only own a revolver, a lever action 0.22 caliber rifle, and a double barrel 12-gauge. That revolver is 9 shot 0.22 caliber, the preferred hand gun for target shooting or rats and snakes. For home defense if I were so moved then a pump 12-gauge would be my choice and if I wanted to fight in a revolution then I would choose a bolt action 0.50 caliber rifle with a high power scope. Automatic weapons, full or semi, are for police and military and for the women that fantasize about them.
I strongly advocate the Isaac Walton League for environmentalism, gun safety, and family recreation. A head on attack is a bold but foolish infantry tactic.
Past experience has shown us that gun manufacturers have all the necessary wherewithal to wear down assault weapons bans with semantics and mail order conversion kits. If looks could kill, then who would want assault weapons?
Posting voodoo seems consistent.
Yep, the magic still works a moment.
I thought that was why we had a military draft, a citizens soldiers force to prevent the takeover of the government by the military. Oh, wait…
BTW, after switching to a new computer and changing browser, the accessing sites ran so fast that I did not implement ad blocker. One of the first to annoyingly pop up at AB was an NRA survey to which I responded with the same opinions that I posted up this thread. Since then I get daily E-mails from the NRA even after unsubscribe for which rules move them direct to deleted, but NRA ads show up on every AB thread that I read. This is why I so love personal computing and its relentless efforts to monetize me.
ron:
I use the Edge system on this computer which blocks ads according to setting. A lot of stuff goes to junk from my email account also. Did you get a solid state version of a computer? My travel-laptop (Samsung) is solid state and it is fast.
With a switch to a newer comments section, the ads will disappear from what we are told. Other sites tend to allow ads until you make a contribution or subscribe to them. AB does neither.
In commercial computing then computers are just tools, but in personal computing then people are just tools.
BTW, a lot of the gun ads on AB are USCCA instead of NRA, but that is a distinction without a difference.
Run,
Since computers have all been solid state for the last fifty years, then I assume that you are asking whether the system disk is solid state. No, it is not. It is just a 1TB SATA (WDC WD10SPZX-08Z10). AB is just a little spot on the WWW. NWS does not have ads either, nor has any federal agency site that I have ever visited. Some of my favorite nonprofit information sites do not have ads, but do beg for donations a lot. Private weather and news sites more than compensate with their persistent attempt to monetize those seeking “free” information. In any case, this box is fast enough that ads are more entertaining and informative than frustrating. I learn what I want to know and yet have strong incentives to use the Internet less and step away from the screen. I will still have to dodge the showers, but it looks like last Friday was our last ice storm for the season.
Take care and good luck.
Hope the rest of your day goes better.
well, i don’t object to ads if they help to pay the bills. but ads that keep you from reading the site you came for, or posting comments, can’t be making many friends for the advertisers.
The disappearing comments trick strikes again.
That last superfluous comment brought Coberly’s 2/21 posted at 1:18 pm back from the ozone, temporarily at least.
did you do your own Counting? I don’t know how accurate my accounting is. you better do your own Counting, but I counted 8 comments from AKA and two comments from Run. Are bloggs like this designed to flush lot of comments out of the woodwork? comments from people who are focused on militia firearms?
think about
it
!
sigh:
Do you think we do not know what is going on with comments? We do and this stemmed back to the original comments program. We had hoped this would work. Unfortunately, WordPress has some bugs to it we can not solve. Be patient as this is not a knee jerk reaction and neither will the next move be.
OK, temporarily at most.
Justin
No. They are not. Telling people to think about it is a good way to lose friends and not influence people. There is no guarantee that if you think about what you said that you will see how unlikely it is.
We all think we think. We have less luck getting anybody else to think we think.
coberly,
I think that I think
therefore I am delusional
!
“A well regulated militia….” Beginning words of 2nd amendement. We must regulate the militias. Transporting, using, selling a bullet spewing weapon from or to a weapon owners home would require National Guard monthly attendance and confirmation of mental and physical fitness and knowledge of the bullet spewing weapon and accuracy in shooting. Failure would require National Guard to secure the weapon until such time the owner demonstrated knowledge, skill and ability to own, control or have access to the weapon. It wold be sufficient burden of time, cost and effort that bullet spewing weapons would remain in homes. No weapons would be “confiscated.”
Sam
sounds good. but I think you miss the point. the gun folks think they need to keep their weapons so they can resist a tyranny.
having the government, any government, decide who can have a gun defeats the purpose. you may think they are nuts, and i might agree with you, but i can see their point.
i don’t think the Jan 6 crowd used firearms in their riot. and i tend to believe the really insane people who murder a large number of people within a few minutes with an automatic weapon are quite rare, and no more dangerous in the aggregate than bad drivers or cops with guns.
i assure you that personally i like guns less than you do, and i think i understand why ordinary people would want to see ownership restricted to those who can fake sanity for a
while…so it’s a good political issue as long as no one ever actually solves the problem.
but it’s a shame to lose elections over it. there are much more important things to fix. an no, as an electorate we can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.
justin
good thinking.