Do you belong to a local Militia

[Mtbkski]

Seen this thread on High Road and it stirred up a lot of interesting comments. Wanted to see how the folk over here would respond to a question like this.

They don't seem to be the White Supremist / Aryan Nation crowd that they have the reputation for being in the past. In fact, I find this rather interesting. So, what are you Thoughts on a local militia. Would you join one if it was very well run and organized?

Here is a section from the news on them. It is actually a pretty good segment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJXmu...2%2D4798%2Dba2


Here are some links to Militias that actaully impressed me. Check them out. They aren't what they use to be, that's for sure.

http://www.michiganmilitia.com/

http://champaigncounty.tripod.com/

http://www.firearmsalliance.org/

http://www.mivdf.org/

http://www.mil.state.or.us/SDF/index.html

[KeithPA]

The PA SDF is under the control of the governer. We do have one, but who wants to join with Rendell in office lol. They drill in either Harrisburgh or Philly I thought, I looked it up but it was far from me so that was a no go. If something was organized on the western part of the state that would be great.

http://www.pasmr.org/

[crazyyankee]

I would consider it, as long as they are not the white supremist/ Aryan nation type or crowd....

Is there such a group in the Harrisburg, York, Lancaster area?
I know of none.

[D-FENS]

Militia's have always been around us, from father and son groups to extended family to neighborhood watches.

The whole concept of militia's being tied to white supremacy was media propagated bullshit. During the early 90's the media fear mongered urban populations into building support for Federal Government intervention of these groups. It's nothing more than a ploy to divide and isolate these groups and take away their legitimacy by dirtying the word "militia".

In turn all the Government and media did was divide the nation further and Black Supremacists again rose up in Urban areas that were long dead since the 70's. They remain today, many in Washington DC and Philadelphia.

When you have 300,000,000 people, you're bound to have various groups with various ideals. You have Fred Phelps and his loonies, You have "militia's" that are no more militias than Black Panther groups. You have Pat Robertson and his loonies and Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and loonies of their own.

Because you believe one way, wear military surplus and have guns DOES NOT make you a militia.

.02 -- I grew up through the whole Ruby Ridge/Waco things all over TV, constantly and I remember how I felt and I look back on it and I get pissed off. Nothing more than the puppet-media trying to take legitimacy away from Patriots.

[PA Rifleman]

...During the early 90's the media fear mongered urban populations into building support for Federal Government intervention of these groups. ...

Now that you mention this, I recall the same thing. The "mainstream" media was using the papers & TV to lampoon the militias. The traditional tactic was associating militias with extremist hate groups. The 1992-2000 Democratic white house, combined with the 1994 Assault Weapons ban and numerous high profile gun raids that often resulted in casualties fanned the flames a lot. Lack of accountability and prosecutions for the Texas & Idaho incidents didn't help, either.

Shortwave radio was the carrier for many of these dissenting voices (WWCR in particular), and I'm under the impression that civil unrest or civil war was a serious concern before the snake oil salesmen began to peddle beans, colloidal silver and other dubious crap for Y2K. After Y2K, and especially 9/11/2001, interest in the militia movement waned. Shortwave radio still remains something of a political barometer in rural America.

That said, it will be interesting to see whether there's a resurgence of militia interest after 2008.

[Emptymag]

Now that you mention this, I recall the same thing. The "mainstream" media was using the papers & TV to lampoon the militias. The traditional tactic was associating militias with extremist hate groups. The 1992-2000 Democratic white house, combined with the 1994 Assault Weapons ban and numerous high profile gun raids that often resulted in casualties fanned the flames a lot. Lack of accountability and prosecutions for the Texas & Idaho incidents didn't help, either.

Shortwave radio was the carrier for many of these dissenting voices (WWCR in particular), and I'm under the impression that civil unrest or civil war was a serious concern before the snake oil salesmen began to peddle beans, colloidal silver and other dubious crap for Y2K. After Y2K, and especially 9/11/2001, interest in the militia movement waned. Shortwave radio still remains something of a political barometer in rural America.

That said, it will be interesting to see whether there's a resurgence of militia interest after 2008.

Yes, that sounds about right. I was thinking the same thing when reading THC's post regarding the dirtying of the word "militia". As a little kid, when I heard the word "militia" I had images of good, country folk who gathered for training to repel anyone who invaded our great country. A sort of back-up to our military. Then the media fed us these stories and I started to associate a militia as a group of freakin' military-wannabe whackos!

Much like the media has dirtied the word "gun", I don't know if anyone would take a militia seriously anymore. I think that an organized militia is an excellent idea. Just depends on who's organizing it. Like DeltaII5 pointed out in his post, if Ed Rendell is in charge of it, it's not my idea of a militia. The pic on the homepage of this link (PA Military Reserve) http://www.pasmr.org/ made my skin crawl.

[Lycanthrope]

Of course!

http://members.tripod.com/sonoguy/


Lycantheamishareevilthrope

[Emptymag]

I'm printing out my membership card as I type this. I cant wait to get it in the mail!!!

[1FingrCHan]

The reason why "armed" populace is needed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzk1WmmHoBI

Notice how the Kommie covers the father mouth, this is tyrany.........Hope this does not happen in USA in any form.


1FingrCHan

[TonyF]

No.

My question is, from what, where or from whom do these groups receive their moral authority? That concerns me.

Both the organized and unorganized militias are creatures of the state, sanctioned by the state and governed by the state.

By "state", I mean Pennsylvania. By Pennsylvania I mean "us", its citizens.

Armed bands of citizens can quickly turn into an armed mob. If I encounter an armed group of *citizens* claiming to hold some kind of authority, they better have the papers to prove it. Otherwise it's gonna turn ugly real fast.