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Friday, May 3, 2013

How Many State Militias Are There?


By my count there are twenty: 1) The Alabama State Defense Force, 2) the Alaska State Defense Force, 3)California State Military Reserve, 4) Georgia State Defense Force, 5) Indiana Guard Reserve, 6) Maryland Defense Force, 7) Massachusetts State Defense Force, 8) Michigan Volunteer Defense Force, 9)  Mississippi State Guard, 10) New York Guard, 11) Ohio Military Reserve, 12) Ohio Navel Militia, 13) Oregon State Defense Force, 14) Puerto Rico State Guard, 15) South Carolina State Guard, 16) Tennessee State Guard, 17) Texas State Guard, 18) Texas State Guard Maritime Regiment, 18) Vermont State Guard, 19) Virginia Defense Force, 20) Washington State Guard.

Now you may have noticed that Ohio has two, as does Texas along with Puerto Rico, which is not a state.

We should not confuse these with militia groups in the United States, of which there are 1,200. Then there are 1,360 radical anti-government “patriot” groups as of 2012. This seems rather scary to me. They also have nothing to do with the 2nd amendment. Nor should we confuse them with National Guard Units which every state has plus Puerto Rico.

Trying to find out numbers about these groups is tough. Michigan has 200 members. Vermont had 35 members 3 years ago but now 500 volunteers; who knows what that’s about – there was a post about Militia, Zombies and Cheese related to them I chose not pursue. Washington has two regiments whatever that means. Puerto Rico apparently is one of the largest with about 2,600 troops most of them belonging to the National Guard as well.
Michigan State Militia 1913

It continues to amaze me that although 8 of 10 American citizens want background checks (and likely more gun control) congress voted it down. They are now finding out they have a bit of a problem back home.

It may be time to rethink the 2nd Amendment, which reflected the fears of a fledgling nation. We live in an entirely different country today with entirely different concepts of military need. While Federal Reserve Forces make sense to me these other state militia don’t make sense to me, and the illegal ones are just that, illegal and a danger.

I still think people have the right to have sporting guns, which could be highly regulated, as in other countries, so sportsmen and sportswomen can go out as shoot at stuff. But heavy artillery is just too weird.

Maybe congress will rethink their position, but I wouldn’t count on it, they still seem to serve money interests rather the public common good.

2 comments:

  1. Background checks are great as long as there is no registry or any retention of information at all.

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  2. Trying to put State Defense Forces in the same article as gun control is non-sequitur. State Defense Forces are often times support units, something like a "National Guard Auxiliary." As such, they're mostly unarmed.

    I'm a member of the Alabama State Defense Force. Our mission is to, on order of the Adjutant General of Alabama, provide an organized, trained, disciplined, rapid response volunteer force to assist state and local government agencies, and civil relief organizations in impending or actual emergencies to assure the welfare and safety of the citizens of Alabama.

    Basically, we're the "go between" For the National Guard and civilian EMAs. The National Guard doesn't have the time to devote to emergency response training, as their mission is so diverse. Instead we are the State Military Department's experts in that field.

    We have nothing to do with weapons, or tactics, or anything like that. We're only considered a military force because of our relationship with the Guard.

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