{"id":5541,"date":"2021-07-06T11:49:43","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T11:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5541"},"modified":"2021-07-06T11:49:43","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T11:49:43","slug":"why-militias-are-so-hard-to-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5541","title":{"rendered":"Why Militias Are So Hard To Stop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“When you\u2019ve got neo-Nazis harassing an innocent family in the suburbs because of a podcast that has nothing to do with them, it\u2019s pretty clear this country has a domestic extremism problem. The Department of Homeland Security<\/a> knows it, Congress<\/a> knows it, and every single person who watched the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in horror knows it. There are many elements to the domestic extremism threat in America, but one prominent component is private militias. An assessment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has warned<\/a> that violent extremist militias present \u201cthe most lethal\u201d threats in the U.S., and the share of public demonstrations involving far-right militias has increased since the 2020 general election, according to data<\/a> from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project<\/a>.”
…
“Militias pose a prickly dilemma for law enforcement because they butt up against a bunch of different American narratives around self-defense, gun rights and how to live in a safe society. Some militias are just a group of guys doing target practice in the woods. Other militias plot to kidnap a governor<\/a>.”  
…
“The presence of the term \u201ca well regulated militia\u201d in the Second Amendment to the Constitution leads a lot of people to believe that these groups must be constitutionally protected, but the Bill of Rights is open to interpretation. Some scholars<\/a> say the Second Amendment was referring only to state-run militias called upon by the governor or federal government as needed, not private groups. In fact, in the Supreme Court\u2019s 2008 landmark ruling that upheld an individual\u2019s right to bear arms, the justices notably reaffirmed an 1886<\/a> ruling that the Second Amendment \u201cdoes not prevent the prohibition of private paramilitary organizations\u201d \u2014 in other words, private militias. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPrivate militias want us to think the Second Amendment protects them, and they\u2019re just wrong,\u201d said Mary McCord, the executive director of Georgetown University Law Center\u2019s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. \u201c\u2018Well regulated\u2019 has always meant \u2018regulated by the state.\u2019\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When Facebook recommended he join the Wolverine Watchmen, Dan thought it was a group for firearm training<\/a>. It wasn\u2019t until a fellow group member started inquiring about how to find the home addresses of police officers that alarm bells started going off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dan, whose last name has not been publicly released in order to protect him, went on to become an FBI informant who was critical in uncovering<\/a> the Watchmen\u2019s plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. In March, he testified at a preliminary hearing for three of the more than a dozen people arrested and charged in the case<\/a> since October.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“law enforcement doesn\u2019t always act when it encounters militia activity, and that can lead to dramatic consequences. It\u2019s part of the reason why armed protesters, including some militia members, who had\u00a0planned to storm the Michigan Capitol<\/a>\u00a0in April 2020 didn\u2019t have to storm anything. Instead, they were\u00a0allowed inside by state police<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0stood in the gallery above the Senate chamber<\/a>, toting semiautomatic rifles, staring down as lawmakers went about their business. At least two of these militia members\u00a0were later arrested<\/a>\u00a0for the foiled plot to kidnap Whitmer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/fivethirtyeight.com\/features\/militias-pose-a-serious-threat-so-why-is-it-so-hard-to-stop-them\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“When you\u2019ve got neo-Nazis harassing an innocent family in the suburbs because of a podcast that has nothing to do with them, it\u2019s pretty clear this country has a domestic extremism problem. The Department of Homeland Security knows it, Congress knows it, and every single person who watched the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in horror knows it. There are many elements to the domestic extremism threat in America, but one prominent component is private militias. An assessment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has warned that violent extremist militias present \u201cthe most lethal\u201d threats in the U.S., and the share of public demonstrations involving far-right militias has increased since the 2020 general election, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Militias pose a prickly dilemma for law enforcement because they butt up against a bunch of different American narratives around self-defense, gun rights and how to live in a safe society. Some militias are just a group of guys doing target practice in the woods. Other militias plot to kidnap a governor.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“The presence of the term \u201ca well regulated militia\u201d in the Second Amendment to the Constitution leads a lot of people to believe that these groups must be constitutionally protected, but the Bill of Rights is open to interpretation. Some scholars say the Second Amendment was referring only to state-run militias called upon by the governor or federal government as needed, not private groups. In fact, in the Supreme Court\u2019s 2008 landmark ruling that upheld an individual\u2019s right to bear arms, the justices notably reaffirmed an 1886 ruling that the Second Amendment \u201cdoes not prevent the prohibition of private paramilitary organizations\u201d \u2014 in other words, private militias.
\n\u201cPrivate militias want us to think the Second Amendment protects them, and they\u2019re just wrong,\u201d said Mary McCord, the executive director of Georgetown University Law Center\u2019s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. \u201c\u2018Well regulated\u2019 has always meant \u2018regulated by the state.\u2019\u201d”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“When Facebook recommended he join the Wolverine Watchmen, Dan thought it was a group for firearm training. It wasn\u2019t until a fellow group member started inquiring about how to find the home addresses of police officers that alarm bells started going off. <\/p>\n

Dan, whose last name has not been publicly released in order to protect him, went on to become an FBI informant who was critical in uncovering the Watchmen\u2019s plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. In March, he testified at a preliminary hearing for three of the more than a dozen people arrested and charged in the case since October.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“law enforcement doesn\u2019t always act when it encounters militia activity, and that can lead to dramatic consequences. It\u2019s part of the reason why armed protesters, including some militia members, who had planned to storm the Michigan Capitol in April 2020 didn\u2019t have to storm anything. Instead, they were allowed inside by state police and stood in the gallery above the Senate chamber, toting semiautomatic rifles, staring down as lawmakers went about their business. At least two of these militia members were later arrested for the foiled plot to kidnap Whitmer.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1002,108,619,847],"class_list":["post-5541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-militia","tag-terrorism","tag-united-states","tag-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5541"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5542,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5541\/revisions\/5542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}