Are Emergency Militias Needed?
We are coming off of a horrific weekend with the attempted assassination of former President Trump, along with the death and serious shooting injuries to two other rally attendees.
With the above in mind, do we really need more guns? This New York Times article came before the recent shooting in Pennsylvania: A Trump Ally Is Training 75 Armed Citizens. Is That a Militia?
Quoting from the article, “The leader Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who has allied himself with former President Donald J. Trump and thrust himself into the culture wars, posted a call in March for residents with gun permits and an interest in becoming “provisional emergency special deputy sheriffs.”
The posting called the initiative a strategy to assist in the “protection of human life and property during an emergency” such as a hurricane or blackout — and perhaps, Mr. Blakeman later added, “a riot.”
Governments have many law enforcement agencies that they can currently call upon to provide the necessary “armed forces” to protect people and property. You have the local police, state police, National Guard, and if need be, active-duty military personnel. Adding armed citizens in the form of a militia’s is not a step in the right direction.
Converting those efforts into building Citizen Emergency Response Teams (CERT) who are trained to help people would be a much better use of time and resources.
