Paramilitaries in America

Recently, Americans have seen an upswing in groups of armed civilians on the streets contending they are protecting private property. These groups like to call themselves militias — they are not. States already have militias, they are simply known as the National Guard. At no time has any governor called for armed individuals to ban together to threaten our countryman. These paramilitaries want us to also believe they are pro-police, but if that was true why don't they allow the police to do their jobs rather than complicate conditions. Thus, these neo-fascists people on our streets with their assault weapons have only a mission and that is to intimidate citizens that does not subscribe to their world view.

Some argue they have the Second Amendment right to self protection — this is true and not a subject for debate. But there is a difference between constitutionally protected rights and those which violate our constitutions. When individuals join private paramilitary armies, they are in violation of our United States Constitution and all state constitutions which require us to act in a responsible manner within the Second Amendment framework. Accordingly, individuals may not form private armies within the borders of this nation. Once we go down that path, we become lawless and turn this nation into frightening places like Libya or other Third World nations where law no longer exists and governing becomes the barrel of the gun.

These private armies like to call themselves militias after the patriots that founded this nation, but that too is not true. When our founders concluded that war they didn't hold onto weaponry and threaten others — they went back to their lives, farming and owning shops, having given themselves to the faith of the nation they created. Apparently, these boys with guns have no faith in the goodness of this nation and using that term militia emboldens 17-year old-teenagers to slaughter innocent countrymen because they want to belong to a group. Using the term militia does not give these private armies the right to frighten people, when in all other cases, these militias if they were not white, would be known as gangs.

JON RUGGLES

Wallace