Whenever 9-11 comes around (at lest the last 7 times) I
can’t help but feel numb. Not because
the loss of thousands of lives wasn’t a tragedy – it was. No, I can’t get into the spirit of the
(holiday?) because I don’t feel as though I was somehow harmed. It was a crime to be sure: but with the
exception of any fear I may feel flying, riding the train, or being in New York
However, as though to add injury to insult, the government
chose to use that event to justify any number of real invasions of my liberty
in the name of (making us safer, remembering 9-11, defending the homeland, etc)
when there is little evidence we are any
safer.
So, this year, I was happy to let 9-11 pass and not comment on the event or the attack on liberty that followed – until I came across this piece coauthored by Randy Barnett (a legal scholar I have blogged on here, and for whom I have tremendous respect), written just one week after the attack. While I suggest the article in its entirety, here is the meat:
“A well-regulated militia being essential to the security of
a free state.
. . ." The next time someone tells you that the militia referred to in the
Second Amendment has been "superceded" by the National Guard, ask
them who it was that prevented United Airlines Flight 93 from reaching its target.
The National Guard? The regular Army? The D.C. Police Department? None of these
had a presence on Flight 93 because, in a free society, professional law-enforcement
and military personnel cannot be everywhere. Terrorists and criminals are well
aware of this — indeed, they count on it. Who is everywhere? The people
the Founders referred to as the "general militia." Cell-phone calls
from the plane have now revealed that it was members of the general militia,
not organized law enforcement, who successfully prevented Flight 93 from reaching
its intended target at the cost of their own lives.
The characterization of these heroes as members of the militia
is not just the opinion of one law professor. It is clearly stated in Federal
statutes. Perhaps you will not believe me unless I quote Section 311 of US Code
Title 10, entitled, "Militia: composition and classes" in its entirety
(with emphases added):
"(a) The militia of the United States consists of all
able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in
section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a
declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female
citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are —
(1) the organized militia, which
consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia,
which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National
Guard or the Naval Militia."
This is not to score political points at a moment of great tragedy,
though had the murderers on these four airplanes been armed with guns rather
than knives, reminders of this fact would never end. Rather, that it was
militia members who saved whatever was the terrorists' target — whether the
White House or the Capitol — at the cost of their lives points in the direction
of practical steps — in some cases the only practical steps — to reduce
the damage cause by any future attacks.
. . .
Asking all of us if we packed our own bags did not stop this attack. X-rays of all carry-on baggage did not stop this attack (though it may well have confined the attackers to using knives). And preventing us from using e-tickets or checking our bags at the street (for how long?) would neither have stopped this nor any future attack. All these new "security" proposals will merely inconvenience millions of citizens driving them away from air travel and seriously harming our economy and our freedom. As others have noted, it would be a victory for these murderers rather than an effective way to stop them in the future. A way around them will always be open to determined mass murderers. More importantly, none bear any relation to the attack that actually occurred on September 11th.
