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Dammit, wouldn't that disqualify 75% of the people at NES car shoots ?
Are there currently any active militias in MA? I did some googling but came up empty.
If done right and with a enough members, I think we could greatly benefit from one. What do you all think?
And no, I am not picturing a bunch of mall ninja’s fumbling through the forrest and shooting at trees with their faces covered. But rather some kind of a brotherhood that is organized, armed, prepared, united around a narrow set of causes and known to the public. Something you can be proud to say you are a member of.
Does this still exist? I thought Baker got rid of it.Before more people post things under the assumption the Massachusetts Army National Guard is a state militia heres the states version of it Massachusetts State Defense Force - Wikipedia
The Guard is a federal "militia" force. In reality it's another version of the Army Reserve.
We're a shitty militia, the flobert parlor rifle sold and we missed go time, unless we're all waiting on that sink.
It was also predicated on the idea that these united States would have no standing army. Jefferson saw a standing army and a central bank as the two main threats to freedom. So here we are, a nation at perpetual war with a people in perpetual debt.
Does this still exist? I thought Baker got rid of it.
The problem with Madison and Jefferson's idea about an army of the people is that the people have, in their minds, better things to be doing besides training for the next time the British come down from Canada or across the pond. By like 1820-1840, the town militia day in New England was more like the aforementioned drunken BBQ rather than a day of serious military preparation. There were border clashes around here during the Aroostook War and the Republic of Indian Stream period up in Pittsburg, but there wasn't much likelihood of Boston or Providence or New London being burned again. Combined with agricultural struggles and industrialization, people simply didn't have time to dress up and play soldier on weekends. Mill workers worked six days a week with Sunday reserved for church services and family time (kids went to mill schools), typically mandated by the mill's policy. Farmers got shafted in New England with the Year Without a Summer and many left for the west or Maine.
Even during the Revolution and War of 1812, militia troops could at best be described as an unreliable or unpredictable quantum except when commanded by exceptional officers who knew the limitations of the militia and were able to keep the militia highly motivated like John Stark and Daniel Morgan. The most effective use of militia was as light infantry skirmishers or as rangers (Church's Rangers, Roger's Rangers), although arguably the ranger units were the predecessors of SpecOps in North America. Small groups of militia could take on small opponents, like say the ranger groups, the Battle of Bennington, and at King's Mountain, but militia couldn't be relied on as the front line combat force, which is why they eventually became a support unit in relation to the Continentals.
The Jeffersonian dream of an army of the people, the nation under arms, came to being under Napoleon and subsequent European national conscription models like Prussia in its heyday. Rather than have each town have a militia force, there was national conscription. The people of France under Napoleon exported revolution by force of arms to the rest of Europe. Obviously where Jefferson and Napoleon differ is to the role of the citizen after the war (Jefferson: farmer-militia; Napoleon: citizen of the empire) and in regards to centralization versus decentralization of the state.
Its important to keep in mind that both Jefferson and Madison seriously lacked military experience in comparison to the other big name Founders. Even John Adams had more hands-on experience with the military because Adams was part of the naval committee of the Continental Congress and learned a lot from Stephen Hopkins, part-time privateer, part-time merchantman, and part-time cannon foundry owner. Washington had experience in the French and Indian War before being C-in-C during the Revolution. Franklin commanded troops as PA's colonial governor at one point. But Jefferson and Madison were primarily lawyers and politicians without any serious combat experience or military training. The two had some brilliant ideas like the Second Amendment but they should be taken simply as men who... might not always be right in regards to what they thought.
That was a tour de force. Did you write that extemporaneously? What are you?
OP, as soon as youre "organized and known to the public" half your membership is gonna be FBI/ATF. We'd be better off with thousands of 4-6 man groups than 1 group with a bunch of guys. Just the fact that youre calling it a militia is already heading down the wrong road imo.
There's also room for discussion about the Jeffersonian Democratic ideal society....
I once read (on the internet) a diary of a British soldier on Long Island (IIRC) from the war of 1812 (might have been the Revolutionary War). The soldier marveled at the tranquility of the landscape with one well-tended farm giving way to another and the abundance of the food with fruit and butter and honey around every corner.
To my chagrin I have not been able to find that passage again though I have often looked.
I would like to know if the decades after the Revolutionary War really were Jefferson's ideal agrarian society. Was that the best time in this country's history?
A state defense force isn't trained or equipped as a counter-terrorist force, which is a real threat for Mass, but is instead designed to be a reserve force in the event of invasion or if there's a need to be offensive locally (like say with John Stark at Bennington). That ain't happening in the Commonwealth for the foreseeable future.
Its not permanently gone. Every governor decides if they want the defense force or not. The "general" of the defense force is traditionally a newly retired adjutant of the mass national guard....and most of the members are retired mass national guard. Their loyalty would be to the governor of course.Does this still exist? I thought Baker got rid of it.
Terrorism is a real threat? What? Where?
Its happened before, it can happen again. Especially with more and more members of "certain demographics" moving into the state.
HEY! I resemble that remark.i'm thinking of that film "the russians are coming, the russians are coming." i can also visualize half of our crack nes militia converging on watertown looking for the culprit. the other half...
- i gotta work
- i'll be on vacation
- wife sez i gotta put in the air conditioners
- putting down fertilizer
- can't, kids soccer game
- waiting on a furniture delivery
- in-laws are in town
- etc.
- etc.
- etc.
just teasing guys!
i'm thinking of that film "the russians are coming, the russians are coming." i can also visualize half of our crack nes militia converging on watertown looking for the culprit. the other half...
- i gotta work
- i'll be on vacation
- wife sez i gotta put in the air conditioners
- putting down fertilizer
- can't, kids soccer game
- waiting on a furniture delivery
- in-laws are in town
- etc.
- etc.
- etc.
just teasing guys!
Hi, Maura, nice to see you on NES!
i'm thinking of that film "the russians are coming, the russians are coming." i can also visualize half of our crack nes militia converging on watertown looking for the culprit. the other half...
- i gotta work
- i'll be on vacation
- wife sez i gotta put in the air conditioners
- putting down fertilizer
- can't, kids soccer game
- waiting on a furniture delivery
- in-laws are in town
- etc.
- etc.
- etc.
just teasing guys!
200 posts per year. Roughly 260 workdays per year. So less than one post per day. Leaves plenty of time for planning dirty AG tricks with your jack-booted thug friends.Dang, you got me. 10 years and 2k posts down the drain. Guess I’ll start over now.
Pretty sure that there are a few around the country that may be comprised entirely of undercover feds.
It would be pretty funny if a militia group somewhere was found to be made up entirely of undercover agents of various agencies, each doing their own separate investigations.
Lol, I believe it. One agency starts a militia to draw in the "crazies". Another hears about XYZ militia and sends in guys to infiltrate. No one is disclosing theyre LE of course so no one knows any better. It could carry on indefinitely due to the fact that because theyre all LE, nothing of any real interest is going on. Reminds me of a vid I saw where there were two groups of cops involved in a drug bust. One group were the dealers looking to bust the buyers and the other was the buyers looking to bust traffickers.I have read more than one story where this has happened--agencies working independently have unknowingly crafted "militias" comprised entirely of undercover agents reporting on one another to their own organizations.