Are militias worth joining?

Open Carry
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So, this past October I joined our local militia. I got my boyfriend to join too. I didn’t know what I could offer or bring to the table, but have been wanting to join for years. My concern though was that it would end up being a group of wanna be weekend soldiers running through the woods simulating all sorts of things. Not all bad, but I have seen militias get into some trouble and make asses of themselves.

It took about 6 weeks before the man I contacted would meet up with me. Since I joined, we have only met twice. The first time in November where we met at the library so that two people, the squad leader or what ever his title is and another man could get to know me and my boyfriend. Supposedly the leader was prior military. We talked for about 2 hours where they asked us questions and I asked them questions, trying to get a feel for what they see as their mission and what they do as far as training, etc. The most I got from that meeting is that they don’t talk about guns or shooting or anything like that and his idea of a militia is helping people clean up their yard after a storm.

After that, I was sent an email about every month asking when were good days for us was to meet up and what are the things we would like to train and learn. My answers were always the same as our schedule is always the same and things I would like to learn involved map reading, fire starting, shooting, outdoor, survival, things of that sort. Weekends are always open and evenings.
Another email would arrive, same questions, and I would send off the same answers. My boyfriend would get text messages every two weeks with the same questions and he too answered the same way. Then, we started getting weekly check-in texts. “Everyone good?” “Yes” "ok, we’ll check in next week "

Last month we finally met up, again… at the library. This time the squad leader was there along with a different young man, apparently a paramedic. Three hours of this new guy getting to know me and my bf and asking us questions. Well, it was at this meeting that I decided to open up some as I thought maybe I was too reserved at the first meet up. We just talked about things I like to do, etc. and during the conversation I told him I had made a smoke bomb, but was trying to perfect it. Both of them like to have jumped out a window when I said that. I looked over at my boyfriend and he looked at me, both of us with the same confused look on our faces as to the reactions these two guys had. I thought “What the hell is the big deal? It’s a smoke bomb”. It was at this meeting that we realized that including myself and my bf, there are only 5 people in this militia for this area.

By the end of this meeting, the most we could get out of them as far as what and when we would be training was them saying they wanted to come to our house in May so that I could teach them canning. That’s it. Even though I said the paramedic would be able to teach us a whole lot as far as dealing with injuries and wounds, but all I got back from that was that he is licensed and can’t teach us things. :thinking:

Two weeks ago my boyfriend sent a text saying that we should just pick a day, say for example every Third Sunday of the month, and make that our training day, regardless of trying to get everyone’s schedules to work. The idea seemed well received, but we heard nothing back. Then we get our weekly “check-in” text this weekend and that was about all I was willing to deal with. We sent a message back saying that we were done with this militia. It’s obviously too difficult for them to get 5 people together and we didn’t see the point.

So, I thought when I joined, that I would be around like minded people who wanted to get together on a regular basis (even once a month) and learn and train, but apparently that’s not what this militia offers. Is this normal for most militias?

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How did you hear of this “group”? My understanding is militia do not advertise(unless its an alphabet organization collecting intel)

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Personally I don’t believe in organized Militias.
From what I see of them they are nothing more than redneck stereotypes that like to dress up and play soldier.
If the time came when we needed to ban together to fight off an enemy there are plenty of candidates to join together.
The Militia thing is not a “Thing” in my state so I do only see the limited coverage from the intertrap and the like.
And north of us they are the skinhead types and not worth my time in the least.
(Sorry Idaho)
I would suggest taking a real professional defense class and learning so you can teach others if the time came.
I wouldn’t want to get trapped into the stereotype.

Well there is my two cents.
Wont buy you damn thing these days though.

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ICVM Indiana Citizens Volunteer Militia. I contacted one of the higher ups and they got me in contact with this leader in my area.

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That was my concern as well @Grenz45 but i wanted to see for myself. Now I know. And that’s what I’m going to do. I already looked into classes.

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Don’t let them talk you into something you know is wrong. They may ask for money later.

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Nah, I’m done with them.
Wouldn’t have gotten any money from me anyway.
The leader said he’ll be busy all summer as he works with the boys scouts. Ironically, they just finished time learning to start fires in the scouts. Maybe I should have joined the boyscouts to get the training. But we are moving in a little over a year. Didn’t know if I should try again in a new state or just forget the whole thing.

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Personally, I’d abandon the idea. A lot of shady characters. Could be group with ill intent, could be front for FBI/ATF gathering Intel on locals or individuals. You have no way to verify what or who. Just my humble opinion

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Yeah, I was getting a strange feeling. I’ll ditch the idea and do what @Grenz45 suggested and just train on my own.

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I hear Pepe the frog is giving lessons.:rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Good choice! Youll come across more like minded individuals that may end up good friends. At that point, then discussion can be had on grouping up, etc

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I feel it is best to have a group made up of family and long time friends. People you know and trust

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Sooooooo…
my .02 is that if your local militia sucks you should fix it.

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Here’s my advice when it comes to “militias”, stay as far away as you can from any organization or group that calls themselves that. A couple of reasons in the following.

First, “militias” attract too many anarchists, skinhead/Nazi/racist types, or the stereotypical “the South will rise again” 360 pound redneck bubba running through the woods in surplus uniforms 3 sizes too small with a 400 dollar AR with 1000 dollars of cheap Chinese knock-off tacticool stuff hanging off of it.

Second, ALL militias are on government watch list. I know this first hand from being a federal ranger. Anything with even the slightest ties to the “sovereign citizen” movement is closely watched. We received some pretty in depth training on this subject because of some of the “stuff” that has been found on federal lands.

Finally, if you’re looking for like minded folks I suggest start going to local competitions, seek out training from competent trainers. If you live rurally get to know your neighbors. Think about setting up or joining a neighborhood watch type organization. I do live rurally and my neighbors and I have come to where we look out for each others property, watch out for vehicle and folks we don’t recognize and keep tabs of that on the message group we are part of, hold informal shooting sessions for fun AND skills building, etc…

Just my 2 cents.

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in my part of the world the Militia is actually a term referring to the Reserve Element of the Regular Army and goes back a couple hundred years definition wise. And having spent the last part of my Military career in the Militia, when I look South I see the term Militia basically referring to a rabble with guns.

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Pretty much.

The part about militias that has been lost in America over time is the concept that the militia was originally composed of two parts, the organized and unorganized militias. Militias were state entities. The organized portion was that which attended drills regularly and trained (hence where the term “well regulated” comes into play) and would muster in defense of the state or be requested to augment under regular forces when federal government requested. The unorganized was the rest of the citizenry which could in times of emergency come together in defense of their community and state.

Today however we have National Guard, which in reality is a federal army on part time basis ON LOAN to the individual states and the concept of the rest of the citizenry being capable of defending themselves and their community replaced by the poor solution that either LEAs or the National Guard is now their first line of defense that will always be there in time.

So now when I see the talk of “militias” what I really see is groups of folks playing soldier who often times have motives that are either quite questionable or outright seditious.

This is why I recommend folks to adopt a model more along a community watch and if one lives rurally them incorporate firearms and basic small until training solely for protecting the local community until lawful authority has been restored.

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I wish I had good neighbors like you do. The very first day we moved into this house in 2016, we pulled up with our trailer of stuff (first load) and before we got out of our car, our neighbor was standing at the back of our trailer looking at our stuff. He walked up to my truck and put his face up to the window to see in (I have dark tinted windows). He pestered us, grabbed stuff from my boyfriends hands and was babbling shit the whole time. We nicely asked him to leave. Then we firmly asked him, then we told him to leave. He looked at my boyfriend and he said “Well, fuuuuck you!” That was the first10 minutes at our new place.
For months he continued to stop me while I was out mowing and ask me for cigarettes and for me to take him to the store to get beer. He stalks our house and watches us. Always walking down the road and looking at what we do, mostly watching me as I am home alone during the day. He and his wife are in their late 70’s. She stays gone most of the time because they hate each other, but when she is home, she screams at the top of her lungs obscenities at him. That’s how you know she’s home because she is always screaming when she’s home. She was even screaming “Fuck the neighbors!” before we ever met her. Her favorite words are mother fucker!! She even sings mother fucker in a song.
They stole my dog (possibly killing it). We have it on video from the cameras but cops said it was too dark to see anything definative. My dog was in my barn when he was taken.
I had hung over 700 laminated flyers in four counties, and mailed out dozens of letters to vets and shelters and joined 200 FB groups for missing pets. Not knowing if they killed him or she dumped my him somewhere. She was taking down all my flyers daily around the house and in the next county (as she drove there daily and I followed her). It was at this point I finally met the wife in person (after 15 months of living here and listening to her foul mouth) and her and I got into it on the street. I told her for every ONE flyer she tore down, that I would put up four more. And I threatened that if I ever saw her and her husband on my property I would shoot them.
As I write this now, she is out there screaming her head off and cursing. You can’t sit out and enjoy the birds and the weather as she drawns it out with her mouth. They are nut jobs!
The old man is in poor health and always sounds like he’s having a heart attack or something, and if I ever saw him drop to the ground, I would probably not call paramedics until I saw the buzzards gathering.

The neighbors next to them I have not met. My boyfriend went over shortly after we moved here to introduce himself and that guy told him “I am not the neighborly type” and has nothing to do with us.
My next nearest neighbors are through the woods and I have never seen them. They live in a beat up trailer with half the windows and doors sitting on the ground and junk all over the place. From what I understand they spend most of their time in jail on drug charges. I like these neighbors the best as they are quiet and have never bothered us.

My last neighbor is about a mile down the road, I met him after his dogs came to my house. I took them back to him. He seemed like a nice guy and his dogs seemed nice. But then his dogs came back and killed my cat that I’ve had for 14 years. I took his dogs back to him and told him if his dogs come back to my house again, they would not be coming back home.

And those are my neighbors.
I am a very quiet person. I stay to myself as does my boyfriend. We don’t run engines, play music, have parties or people over to the house. It’s just us two and we stay to ourselves. We just wanted privacy and peace and to enjoy nature and have a safe place for our animals.

In our next place, we are making sure…NO NEIGHBORS.

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LOL, bet that house was a steal huh?

wait, my new house has…uh…neighbors :grimacing:

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New neighbors aren’t that bad to deal with. You begin your first conversation with them relating to the time you believe you were abducted by aliens and probed. Chances are, they will think you’re out there and want nothing else to do with you ever again!. If that don’t work, you have to portray that you were bigger white trash than they are.

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Nope. Not even close.
They should have paid us to take the house. My boyfriend says they are old and can’t live forever and to wait it out. I say, evil lives forever and no telling what we will get moved in there later. At least the old man mows his yard everyday and keeps it clean. When i say everyday, I mean every single day he mows. He’s out there right now mowing. It’s a small yard too. His mower is sooooo slow that it takes him all day to finish. Tomorrow he will be right back at it.

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