When can a citizen take up arms and form a militia? A lot of the fight over the Second Amendment involves two sets of arguments. Argument One has to do with individual gun ownership. May the government place restrictions on gun ownership? The court answer has been that it can. It may require the licensing of guns, etc. May the government prevent gun ownership? Yes and no, courts have ruled that convicted criminals may be so denied, but that citizens may not. May the government prevent pistol ownership? Now that is a matter of much debate and the results have been unclear.
But, the second question that is generally ignored or said to be a question that only involves radical groups has been whether citizens may form a militia without government authorization. Many people assume that the only militia allowed is the National Guard, but is that so? Groups from both the right and the left have argued that citizens have the right to form militias for their protection or to take up arms for self-protection in extreme cases. For instance, the Black Panthers so argued in the 1960’s. Meanwhile, to this day The Alliance of Guardian Angels patrols some of our inner city streets and claims militia-type rights for some of their activity.
Generally the second question is relegated to the realm of kooks and extremists, but is it always so? Father Orthoduck is not in favor of many of the militias, but will post a case or two that show times when citizens have taken up arms in extreme conditions. We tend to say that it is the exception that proves the rule, but these exceptions are well worth considering. The first case is the Battle of Athens, Tennessee in 1946.
Please note that the first editorial listed is semi-approving and is by Eleanor Roosevelt, the then widow of President Franklin Roosevelt:
McMinn A Warning — By Eleanor Roosevelt
New York, Monday — After any war, the use of force throughout the world is almost taken for granted. Men involved in the war have been trained to use force, and they have discovered that, when you want something, you can take it. The return to peacetime methods governed by law and persuasion is usually difficult.
We in the U.S.A., who have long boasted that, in our political life, freedom in the use of the secret ballot made it possible for us to register the will of the people without the use of force, have had a rude awakening as we read of conditions in McMinn County, Tennessee, which brought about the use of force in the recent primary. If a political machine does not allow the people free expression, then freedom-loving people lose their faith in the machinery under which their government functions.
In this particular case, a group of young veterans organized to oust the local machine and elect their own slate in the primary. We may deplore the use of force but we must also recognize the lesson which this incident points for us all. When the majority of the people know what they want, they will obtain it.
Any local, state or national government, or any political machine, in order to live, must give the people assurance that they can express their will freely and that their votes will be counted. The most powerful machine cannot exist without the support of the people. Political bosses and political machinery can be good, but the minute they cease to express the will of the people, their days are numbered.
This is a lesson which wise political leaders learn young, and you can be pretty sure that, when a boss stays in power, he gives the majority of the people what they think they want. If he is bad and indulges in practices which are dishonest, or if he acts for his own interests alone, the people are unwilling to condone these practices.
When the people decide that conditions in their town, county, state or country must change, they will change them. If the leadership has been wise, they will be able to do it peacefully through a secret ballot which is honestly counted, but if the leader has become inflated and too sure of his own importance, he may bring about the kind of action which was taken in Tennessee.
If we want to continue to be a mature people who, at home and abroad, settle our difficulties peacefully and not through the use of force, then we will take to heart this lesson and we will jealously guard our rights. What goes on before an election, the threats or persuasion by political leaders, may be bad but it cannot prevent the people from really registering their will if they wish to.
The decisive action which has just occurred in our midst is a warning, and one which we cannot afford to overlook.
All the descriptions of the Battle of Athens are long, but the fairest and most neutral one appears to be at the American Heritage website. Again, please note that Eleanor Roosevelt, not known to be a conservative extremists by any range of the imagination, is semi-approving. Also, please note that neither local, county, state, nor federal government took any legal action against the people involved in the insurrection. This should tell you that there was a tacit approval of their actions. So, was this a justified or an unjustified action under the Second Amendment. Again, notice that none were prosecuted. And, if you say it is a justified action, then when else is it justified?
===MORE TO COME===
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