And the assault weapon ban gave us Printz v US, which reinforced previous USSC decisions that allows county sheriffs and states to tell the federal gestapo government to get lost.
It also gave us state legislatures passing laws that tell state bureaucrats that they may not cooperate with federal gestapo agents. For those who don’t know, the federal gestapo cannot operate in states without help from the states. The next step is to hinder the movement of the federal gestapo into states via state laws and armed muscle via county sheriffs.
As for the militia movement, it’s a good thing to rein in these freelancers. Some are loose cannons and hotheads who refuse to submit to command structure (see Bundy Ranch).
There are 26 states with state guards - I’m not talking about state national guards - where those so inclined to volunteer their services as militia can join state guard units with military structures and commands.
For example, South Carolina has three battalions, originally organized in 1776 to meet the British attack against Charleston Harbor.
We are in better shape than you realize.
That turned a lot of potentially valuable people away from the entire patriot movement, whether their connection was political involvement or schlepping around the boonies on maneuvers.
I honestly believe a lot of potentially valuable people were isolated from each other because of the media pushed perceptions.
When I heard of Alinsky, I knew I had seen this used before. Even people who had followed the Randy Weaver events at Ruby Ridge, Gordon Kahl at Medina, ND, or the Waco Massacre were wont to speak out because of the entire 'wacko nutjob Militia' meme the press put out, and even more so because the association the Media fostered in people's minds put them in league with the OK City bombers. We're talking good and decent people who didn't take well to being made out to be child murderers (the single preeminent photo from the bombing was of a firefighter holding a bloodied child's body).
For the 24 states without State Guards, that doesn't work out to be a plus, it only ensures that coordinated efforts will be haphazard at best. That virtually guarantees loose canons.