Militia Groups: Still A Valid National Security Paradigm?

Given the relative military success of armed militia and partisan groups during the Balkan civil war and the 2003 invasion of Iraq are militia groups still a valid national security paradigm?


By: Ringo Bones


For a number of years now, several lawmakers across the world have deemed Airsoft clubs as nothing more than a training ground for “unregulated militias”, and yet militia groups have lately been praised as the last line of defense against imperialism. With the relatively successful resistance posed by militia groups acting in a partisan capacity form a military standpoint during the turbulent Balkan region civil war of the 1990s and the ill-advised invasion of Iraq by the Bush Administration back in 2003. It could be said that as long as an invading imperialist armed with the latest state-of-the-art weaponry like stealth bombers and the H-bomb still adheres to the Geneva Convention and related rules of war. The invading imperialists seem to be powerless when facing against modestly equipped ragtag militia groups acting in a partisan capacity. But is there any truth to this?

There has been a “silent revolution” moving across the world – especially citizens of relatively stable democracies – for their respective lawmakers to grand them gun owning privileges modeled after the American Second Amendment as a deterrent against their country accidentally electing a tyrannical leader or an invading army. Since the end of the Cold War, it seems that fiscal austerity became the norm when it comes to national defense spending of most relatively stable democracies during much of the 1990s. But the 9/11 attacks changed all that and the very same countries now face the problem of bolstering their national defense as fast as possible while spending as little as reasonably possible.

This is where the citizen-militia comes in. Private gun owners – especially those who own infantry style assault weapons that are more often than not of higher quality and better maintained than those issued in their respective national armies – can act in a sort of partisan capacity. Harassing the invading enemy until the invaders eventually get sick and tired of it and give up to go home. Given the recent events documenting the relative success of such scenarios, one can easily conclude that private assault rifle owners – in particular – could be truly a typical country’s last line of defense. This is where Airsoft clubs could serve its usefulness as a training ground for basic firearms safety and first-hand exposure to military-style operations to the civilian gun enthusiast.

Are Airsoft Clubs Virtual Militias?

The hardware may just be well-crafted simulacra of real infantry small arms, but does your typical Airsoft club qualify as a true-blue militia group?


By: Ringo Bones


Traditionally, militias have always been accepted as a part of the organized armed forces of a typical country liable to call only in emergency. Some would say the whole body of able-bodied male citizens declared by law as being subject to call to military service. But ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall that eventually lead to the end of the Cold War, militias anywhere in the world are more often than not established by disaffected young men and women coming together for collective security. Primarily due to the fact that these young men and women’s respective government have found it very politically expedient to infringe upon their collective allegiances and / or lawfully acquired material possessions and titles just for the reasons of belonging to an ethnic minority.

Worse still, the Bush Administration’s badly-run War on Terror in which the Obama Administration unfortunately inherited had supposedly implied to every not-so-democratic regimes around the world loyal to the United States to enact their own “carte blanche” when it comes to tackling “terror groups”. Thus making these not-so-democratic regimes team up with their very influential clergy to freely preach sanctimonious religious rhetoric on wealth redistribution aimed at a wealthy ethnic minority as a way for these regimes to shield themselves from anti-corruption whistle-blowers – when there’s a scapegoat, there’s a getaway perhaps?

Given that the United States is the only developed nation that allows its citizens the right to keep and bear arms via the Second Amendment of the US Constitution about not infringing on the establishment of a well-regulated militia. It seems quite odd that there are some states in the US where establishing of Airsoft clubs is deemed illegal. Some countries too that are loyal to the US and her interests have deemed it illegal to have Airsoft clubs. While some of them have legalized paintball clubs, these paintball clubs are not allowed to give advanced tactical training – like CQB, hostage rescue of astronauts landing in hostile zones and room clearing - to their civilian players.

Even though they are just over-glorified versions of pellet guns, there is one thing that you can do with an Airsoft weapons system that you can’t do with a modern infantry-style assault rifle. That is to shoot your opponent without killing him or her or involving lengthy hospital stay during one of your simulated war games. As firm believers of the Second Amendment is just an extension of the First Amendment, all of my Airsoft teammates have real guns – an average of three in fact (infantry style assault rifle, main sidearm and a concealable small backup handgun, while some own man-portable anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons systems, etc.) – all unregistered and deemed necessary due to their very healthy mistrust of the government that considers ethnic minorities prettier looking than them as vermin. Sometimes I even wonder if these elected officials have ever heard the concept of the Posse Comitaus Act or the US Constitution’s Second Amendment.