What! Militia laws?

[hollowman]

Ok let me start of by saying a. Im not the smartest guy in the forum and b. I havent read all this yet. But.... i stumbled appon militia laws for the state of ma. I only has a chance to read a little bit of them but it says that the militia works for the governor.
I thought the point of the malitia was to protect the free people of the u.s.a from a tyrannical and oppressive government. Not work for them.

And further more if ma does have a governed militia why is the militia being limited to or "oppressed" to what tools (ar's for example) they can use to do there job.

Clearly i am missing something or i am completely wrong. Which is very VERY POSSIBLE

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[goodlife30]

Mass National Guard.

 

[Picton]

The militia and everything about how it operated changed with the National Defense Act of 1916. Look it up and you'll understand.

 

[tuna]

There are several versions of the militia.

The first, and most common is the National Guard - these can be called into Federal Service (deploy overseas to kill bad people), or called up by the governor (fill sandbags and chainsaw trees after a storm).

Massachusetts, and other states, also have a State Militia which is only under the governor. This is best described as an auxillary to the National Guard.

Finally, there is the unorganized militia which is (IIRC) every able bodied male between 18 and 60.

None of these are to protect against a tyrannical government, except in the part of the oath about "....all enemies, foreign and domestic..." They are to protect the people from enemies, either human or nature.

The duty to protect against the tyranny lies in the PEOPLE (I know, that's the unorganized militia, I guess); with ballots before bullets. It also hinges on those who serve as the fist of authority (police and military) knowing when an order is unlawful, and understanding their duty in refusing to carry it out. (I know this is true with military, I don't know if that duty applies to police as well, as long as it in policy)

 

[goodlife30]

The militia and everything about how it operated changed with the National Defense Act of 1916. Look it up and you'll understand.

Also look up the change in guard status from strategic reserve to operational reserve. This was a big change during the first gulf war. No more hiding out in the guard to escape deployments. Just the opposite now.

 

[Picton]

Yeah, but he's asking about when the governors got control of the militia. That was 1916, formally.

OP, basically militias used to be like schools used to be: locally controlled and funded. Then, just like with schools, the costs of militias rose and many towns couldn't afford a first-rate product. So, as always happens, the .gov grabbed more power in an effort to make sure all the militias were up to par, just like with NCLB. And boom. No more local control.

A good but boring book was written as a case study of the Richardson Light Guard in Wakefield. It explains all this in nauseating detail. I enjoyed it, but then I used to live in Wakefield, so... I found it at my library.