Trump Fires Comey

[David Horn]

(05-12-2017, 05:46 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(05-12-2017, 10:02 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: We haven't relied upon state-based militias to a great degree since the Civil War. We have state national guards who activate largely for local emergencies (like national disasters) and are effectively reserves for the regular armed services. 

The National Guard is national.  The federal government pays most of the bills, and if a national emergency arises it can assume command of any unit.  Of note, the militia can be called by the federals to suppress insurrections, enforce the law and repel invasions.  None of those three functions involve the militia leaving the United States.  The National Guard was organized by Teddy Roosevelt as standing army units so it could be taken abroad.  Note, National Guard units were taken abroad extensively to Afghanistan and Iraq under Bush 43.

Another example of the control of the Guard came during the awakening.  George Wallace called up the National Guard to prevent universities from being integrated.  Washington DC proceeded to call up the Alabama Guard to to federal control.  Legally, Washington and the executive branch have the upper hand in commanding the National Guard.  A Guard general who follows the state command authority rather than the federal once the federals have mobilized them gets court marshaled.

But if troops are rebelling against the executive branch, things like legalities have become options anyway.  It is one thing to know the law.  It  is another to imagine a president like Trump doing bad enough stuff that troops of all ranks start ignoring the law.

There are a few states with true State Guards.  These states don't take money from Washington.  The federals can't preempt their use.  Such units are very rare these days.

Now, this to me is an example of a blue partisan refusing to listen to fact.  I have posted the above many times over the years.  You seem incapable of remembering or comprehending that the National Guard is not the militia.  The militia is essentially all male citizens of military age.  There are exemptions such as post office workers and shipyard employees who the founding fathers thought should remain on the job, even in a military emergency.  However, for the most part the militia is all guys of military age.

But the blue Jim Crow interpretation of things depends on a "National Guard is the militia" meme, and many blue extreme partisans cannot let go of that meme, no matter that it is clearly and absolutely wrong under the law.

Virginia has a State Militia, and it's called such.  It is the faculty, staff and student body of Virginia Military Institute.  As one of the professors noted, they will be called to duty immediately after the "women and children".  So the militia exists but its all ceremony and no action.  There is a concept in law that when something is moot, it ceases to exist in legal terms.  I think the militia is there.  Notice how the Scalia court danced around the issue by ignoring the justifying phrase in the 2nd Amendment.  It's hard to cite the nonexistent as a justification for anything.

So the next liberal court, and there will be one at some point, will have free reign to cite the militia, declare it moot and make the 2nd moot as well.  It's just a matter of time.   It's been obvious that gun ownership and use  is more akin to the ownership and use of those other deadly machines: automobiles and trucks.  As a privilege, it will still continue without the imprimatur of constitutional status.  It will also make it possible for urban areas to put limits on gun carrying in public.