Idaho Senate Passes Bill to Repeal Ban on Private Militias
The Idaho Senate approved a bill that would repeal a state law banning private militias and paramilitary organizations.
The current law that would be supplanted by the measure under consideration forbids “a body of men,” other than the National Guard, to “associate themselves together as a military company or organization, or parade in public with firearms in any city or town” in Idaho.
State Senator Dan Foreman (R-Moscow) is the lead sponsor of the bill and he reportedly introduced the measure so as to prevent the right to keep and bear arms from being infringed by the state law.
“We will unfortunately always have those among us who will break the law and seek to cause unrest,” Foreman said, as reported in the Idaho Statesman. “However, the response to that should be one of due process. Our response should not be based in fear that leads to the abridgment of constitutional rights.”
Voting on the bill almost broke along party lines, with only two Republicans voting against the measure.
While Senator Foreman’s bill does not go far enough in protection of the Second Amendment — it forbids towns from “harboring” militias — he is to be congratulated for his efforts to prevent the continuing erosion of the right to keep and bear arms, as well as the central role that citizen militias have played in winning and maintaining the liberty of the United States.
It is odd that people seem to focus on the part of the Second Amendment protecting the right to keep and bear arms, but overlook the part of the amendment that explain why that right is to be protected: to ensure the security of a free state. And how will keeping and bearing arms work to protect the freedom of the state? Through “a well regulated militia.”
Why do so many overlook that key concept upon which the entire Second Amendment stands?
James Madison, the man history has dubbed the Father of the Constitution, knew about the necessity of a citizen militia to maintaining liberty, and in The Federalist, No. 46 he warned what might happen should Americans allow the federal government to disband the militias in the several states.