The Principle behind the Militia is an Involved Citizenry
Expanding the National Guard to deal with Modern Issues
Expanding the role and scope of the National Guard to include health care, emergency response and police training, is in the scope of what the intent of the Militia clauses in Article 2 Section 8 and the Second Amendment would have intended.
This post continues a theme I started long ago, but directly follows my post:
The Right to Bear Arms = the right to be armed to be fully participating citizens
It is my contention that the second amendment is not primarily about the right to bear arms, but about the right to participate in self government and in the defense and security of our local areas and of our United States.
It is important to remember that from the beginning of the country, for Democratic Republicans:
“Arms were merely a tool to accomplish the constitutional end.”
The Founders sought in militia a corps of civic mindedness and self reliance, a:
...a band of brothers, and maintain your rights, liberties and independence with your last breath.” [Palladium]
Thus the core of the militia concept and the second amendment is the notion of Virtuous Citizenship! The Second Amendment is about the importance of Arming with the appropriate tools and training needed for citizens to participate in their own governments, self defense, disaster response and emergencies both local and national. That spirit is present in first responders to this day.
Therefore being "Armed" has a broader meaning than merely carrying an AR-15 or a military weapon; it means people being educated, trained, drilled and provisioned with the tools and resources needed to respond flexibly to whatever situation may arise both within or outside our country. Not everyone need bear a musket, but the underlying concept also includes all the tools and resources needed to rescue, repair, restore, and sustain our society. Thus in the modern and broader sense, the "right to bear arms" is the right to opportunity to participate in our Country's welfare and to become fully participating citizens. The "arms" involved include medical supplies, tools, tools and resources needed to keep communications open, power-lines and pipe-lines, all of them, operating, repaired, sustained and restored during emergencies and in preparation for emergencies.
The fact is that all our Police, Firemen, military forces in general, all descend from Militia. Health-care, power distribution and communications emerged within our communities, often tied to the necessities of self defense. When they are of, by and for locals, people feel a sense of both belonging and personal empowerment.
Standing Armies
When police, fire, etc... come “from outside the community” they tend to be “standing armies” When police kill innocent people, it is usually because they feel like they are trying to control people who are alien to them. Police can be local volunteers and professionals or they can be from outside. When from outside they are either acting the role of “Standing Armies” or coming to the aid of locals who needed help. The founders saw standing Armies as an evil. As:
“that potion of idleness and corruptor of morals, a standing army”
The militia were meant to be an antidote to standing armies. A modern national guard can be an antidote to communities that feel oppressed and invaded. The old militia became unworkable as drilling for war became irrelevant to most people's daily lives. The country went to “select militia” they brought in police and firemen, often from outside the communities they were serving. Even so the modern version of a select militia National Guard was meant to be an antidote to Standing Armies. As also was the draft. A select militia makes service mandatory for a limited period. But not everyone is suited to carry a weapon. And there are so many more important services needed to respond to disasters and exigencies than Ar-15s or Military weapons.
The Requirements of Duty commensurate with Capability
Once one understands what the founders who referred to the Militia as the "Palladium of Liberty" meant by that praise, this becomes clear. Our entire military, police and emergency services are directly related to the second amendment, and Article 1 section 8 of the Constitution. The Right to Bear Arms is also the privilege to defend the country, defend one's home and stand up for one's nation. We have a right, together and individually, to participate in our polity. Thus all these volunteer and professional structures are "child" structures from the Militia. To meet the requirements of the Constitution the people in our police, fire, military and other volunteer structures must meet the two attributes of:
- representing (of and by) and serving "the people" in their homes, local and general governments;
- being capable and well trained, professional, at their duty.
Cultivating and Exercising Virtues and Duties
While our society is too complex and specialized to make every cook and baker, farmer and engineer muster and march weekly. The spirit of the militia needs to be alive and well in our volunteer and protective services.
Representative and Inclusive
If they aren't representative of our communities and homes, then they can morph from people who "protect and serve" the people, and their communities, to folks protecting and serving themselves, or a narrow class of privileged citizens. The security of communities is the collective responsibility of the people living in those communities, aided by folks, trained and selected from among them, to come to their aid when problems are belong the scope and expertise of the first responders in those communities. When this spirit is violated, police, fire, rescue forces can act as if they were occupying troops of a hostile power, the "standing Armies" the founders warned about so graphically and experienced with Hessian and British Military Forces who we wound up having to fight for our independence. These "united states" were intended to guarantee the security and tranquility of its member states and their subdivisions. We had militia to protect us from standing armies.
Training and Cultivating Virtues, Professionalism and Capabilities
The virtues and duties of defending home, community and country is our responsibility individually and collectively. requires people "qualify and Train." As I noted in Palladium of liberty the militia was intended both to defend the country and to train people:
“If we are to preserve our liberties, to perpetuate our nation, we must lay the foundation in the cultivation of virtue, in the dissemination of useful knowledge, we must learn to know our rights with Certainty, we must cultivate a spirit capable of defending them.” [book]
Thus it takes training and education to have capable doctors, professional fire-fighters, First Responders who can revive a smoke inhalation victim or people who can respond to a downed power line. They need to be educated, trained, and their abilities cultivated and exercised. People must be trained in the capabilities needed to preserve and protect the security and well being of our country and its communities.
They also deserve to be Compensated
Our professional Military Forces form "those in service to the United States", but police, fire, doctors, emergency response people for utilities such as communications and energy. All these are functions that must be in readiness when threats occur. Neglecting those functions so that a few people can pad expense accounts or divert wealth to private coffers, is a threat to our national and local security. Doctors and lawyers are all posts that demand a mix of volunteerism and yet need to be compensated. Even Volunteers deserve to be compensated for their time and effort. When public utility is provided by privateers, they tend to divert wealth and resources to themselves, with tragic consequences. We need a system that rewards labor and volunteerism, and doesn't narrow participation to elites.
Inequality and Inequity
The Spirit of militia is alive and well. This concept, the notion of a volunteer citizenry emerges in disaster. In most emergencies volunteers arrive before any help can come from military bases or Police Stations. In an emergency, the right to self defense, the right to bear arms, is a right and duty of all capable citizens. Our society recognizes that by having National Guards in every State and its subdivisions. The will to participate and volunteer is there. It needs to be resourced.
The Participation of the Whole Citizenry
The original militia was intended to be the availability of all citizens at the rise of a "hue and cry" of disaster. Not only military attacks but Fires, storms, attacks by Indians, and emergencies of all kinds, where the response generally included the entire population, often including women and other people normally excluded from militia service. The spirit of this general response has been exemplified in nearly every disaster in US history, in our wars, and around the world.
Participation as Upleveling
Moreover, the assertion of a right to participate in defending our civilization has usually been a ticket to achieving citizenship. It was because 18 year old were fighting in Vietnam, yet barred from voting, that the franchise was lowered to age 18 for voting. Fighting for the USA was a means to assert citizenship rights for Spanish Speakers, French Speakers in Louisiana, Indigineous, blacks, Japanese and immigrants from every corner on earth. The spirit of volunteerism is the spirit of civilization, of democracy, of our Republic, and the principle behind militia.
Thus the spirit of volunteerism and the general availability of the education and training needed so that people can serve, is an upleveling force that raises the general level of comity and harmony. Training enough doctors, lawyers, engineers, technicians is a matter of national security and also a means of reducing conflict. When parts of the country lack access to health care while other parts live in luxury and security, that is a source of instability.
Avoiding Standing Armies
Anyone who understands the founders knows that they were not so much afraid of disarming the citizenry, as of standing armies and factions armed and acting for private, separate advantage. Or of mobs of angry armed people looting or upending public order.
It is not realistic to force everyone to muster and drill. But it is realistic to expand the national guard and reserve to include a healthy support for volunteerism and reserve forces. I write about how the 19th century a permanent "militia of the whole" became impractical. [see Article:]
But what replaced the militia was an entire concept of volunteerism and professionalism that was still based on the Militia idea. People serve during a war, or when young, and then move on to civilian jobs when the need is no longer there. The Officer corps of the United States military require officers to leave the service when they no longer can move up the ladder of command. This was intended in part to keep the military as professional and yet as tied to the general citizenry as possible. Corps like the Peace Corps, VISTA, etc... all educate, foster and engender people who can serve their communities when they are done with their volunteer period. They need to be compensated or the only people who can volunteer are the wealthy and privileged.
National Service as a Palladium of Liberty
The National Guard is part of the volunteer mission that provides our society fundamental protections against tyranny, that originally were enshrined in the Constitution. Volunteerism is the antidote to "standing armies," mercenary operations and privateering. This is constitutional:
“To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;”
Police, Federal, State and local are Militia, FBI are militia, DoJ is militia. Department of Homeland Security, etc... all are derived from the powers granted to the militia. Self Defense, nowadays includes hospitals and health services, access to lawyers and technicians to repair power lines and conduits. Congress has the duty of:
- “To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia,”
And they have a duty to do the same, providing for, the people providing other vital services necessary for our societies security (Doctors, nurses, Teachers, etc...
These forces need to governed collaboratively! Congress:
“for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States,”
The US governs those serving the United States as a whole. While State and local government governs the rest!
“reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;”
And the Federal Government is supposed to set and enforce standards for professionals and volunteers. The States are supposed to work together to ensure that all the people who protect and serve us, Police, Emergency Services, Health Services, etc... are trained according to "uniform discipline." Uniform meaning not just what folks wear, but whether they are well trained, capable and virtuous.
The national guard needs to be expanded to include reserve forces needed across the country.
Sources:
Further Readings
- On the Militia
- Thoughts on Democracy and Militia
- What the Founders Meant By Militia
- The Palladium of Liberty
- Why the Militia of the Whole Concept Failed
- Select Militia and the National Guard
- Why DC versus Heller Was Badly Decided
- Other Posts on Federal Service
- National Health Service as Part of the National Guard
- First pubished 7/13/2018, revised 9/9/2019
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