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See my post 28 on Madison's words on well-regulated militias.

What would happen today if communities decided to follow Madison's words and try to organize "militia" practice weekends every 6 to 12 months, just to see how well-regulated they could become?

I've seen communities organize citizen emergency response teams to aid the fire department in locating fires and injuries after earthquakes or storms. Why not revive the regulation of citizen militias, too?

This effort could get its legitimacy through state national guards. If some red states tried to have a militia boot camp at a reserve base, people could bring their own arms (just like in Madison's times), where they would demonstrate their skill in using those arms and would then learn basic group organization and tactics to make use of those arms.

I suggest legitimacy through state national guards because the obvious challenge from the Left would be that these groups are right-wing extremists or KKK wannabes. If groups were to self-organize at local gun clubs or leased farmland, they could easily be labeled by the Left a paramilitary hate groups.

Thoughts?

-PJ

The militia is the people regardless of what those same people think. In modern suburbs it is easy to pretend that police are sufficient to keep order. But the people have a responsibility to become armed and trained to the best of their ability because any other definition of militia would be ineffective at maintaining the security of the free state.

I find Hamilton to be a little dated as one would expect. The tradeoff between a militia and a standing army may be a red herring even for his time. The threats today that require a militia are the ones that can be reasonably deterred by the militia, That includes the government to a small extent but mostly criminals, would-be rioters, and mass murdering lunatics. It would also include foreign invaders with the modern caveat that foreign invaders can lob missiles that can't be countered by the militia.