The Constitutional Militia: The Defense of the Nation is the Responsibility of its People

Thanks to the main stream media and anti-gun political agendas the word militia is likely to have most running in fear. The word brings to mind images of ragtag red necked racists running around the woods with “machine guns” and swastikas. While there are certainly radical groups out there claiming to be militias; the concept of an organized militia derives its authority from the U.S. constitution for the purpose of maintaining liberty and defending the nation from hostile invasions. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 15 states that-

“The congress shall have the power to….provide for the calling forth of the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrection and repel invasion.”

According to Richard Henry Lee, the “militia,” when properly formed is made up of the people themselves and includes all men who are able to bear arms.  Put in the context of the U.S. constitution this makes sense because the idea of our republic is that the people are sovereign to government power and the government is a servant to the people. This could not be the case except for the first ten amendments to the U.S. constitution which are known as the bill of rights. Today it seems as if many people accept the idea that the federal government, through the supremacy clause has total power over the states. This is untrue, they only have supreme power over those laws that support the constitution and the tenth amendment explicitly states that-

“All powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states and the people, respectively.” 

This supports the rights of the people to be armed and ready to act in defense of the nation. Many people today feel that the idea of militias and an armed citizenry is outdated and unnecessary because we have an Army. In fact many would argue that the National Guard is the constitutionally authorized militia. Not true, the reality is that the only constitutionally authorized military force to be funded and maintained by the government is the United States Navy. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 13

“The congress shall have the power to provide and maintain a Navy”

While Article 1, Section 8, Clause 12 states that-

 “The congress shall have the power to raise and support armies, but no appropriations of money to that use shall be for more than two years.”

 That means that the standing U.S. Army is in fact an unconstitutional entity receiving money illegally. The founders, at the time of signing the constitution understood that standing armies historically have been the greatest threat to the liberties of the people.  That is still true today as the tyrannies of the twentieth century saw the world’s most brutal dictators use their standing armies to commit mass murder on an unprecedented scale. At the time of course the founders would have been referring to the armies of Great Britain and the history of the Roman Empire as examples. This clause explicitly describes the congress’ responsibility to provide funding for the state militias while giving it a choice to provide for a “national military.” This is more evident by the actual wording of the second amendment. Not too many people realize that the second amendment is the only place in the constitution where the word “necessary” is found. The word is referring to the maintenance of the peoples militias.

The purpose of our constitutional republic based on the rule of law is to protect the sovereignty of the people, and ensure government did not have the power to suppress the rights of freemen.  Our constitution is not a granter of our natural rights, it only states what they are, while establishing a system of government where the power to protect those rights is derived from us, the people of the United States. Any law that is passed in direct contradiction to the constitution is null and void and people have no obligation to follow such laws. The precedent for this was established in Norton vs. Shelby County in 1886.  Failure to understand this is essentially the only way a free people can lose their rights. This is why there is such an influence of the social and behavioral sciences colluding with government and education. They seek to psychologically condition you to surrender your rights out of fear and uncertainty.

The constitution describes the powers of the federal government as few and limiting in scope so as to ensure that the vast majority of political power would remain with the states and people, as described above in the Tenth amendment. When government abuses these powers the people are under no obligation to offer allegiance as the governments primary responsibility is the preservation of life, liberty, property and the people’s right to pursue their own ends, to pursue happiness. In fact, it is the responsibility of sovereign state governments to immediately enact laws that protect the constitutional rights of its citizens in the face of such usurpations. This includes but is not limited to laws concerning the constitutional militia and gun control. In fact, 1903 a law was passed that was to prohibit the federal government from ever trying to enact gun control laws based on this very reasoning. This was called the Dick Act of 1902. 

 While the context of this article will certainly appear radical to many, it doesn’t change the historical facts presented.