Today, we have police at the city, county, state, and federal level of government and we have military at the state and federal level. What we don’t have, though, is the militia in the way that our Founders intended. What they intended was that the whole of the citizenry would be the militia and that within that there would be Minutemen and Minute companies that could respond rapidly to the threats the citizens and community would face.
I’m going to argue, though, that we both need, and have, Minutemen within our midst. And most people know this instinctively if not actually consciously. Depending on the city and county that you live in, the police response time to a significant emergency 911 call is between 3 and 15 minutes. In rural settings it is even longer than that. And what is the amount of time between the bad thing starting and the 911 call? Probably several minutes.
If you are a combat veteran, you are well aware that 5 minutes is a lifetime. What happens during those 5 minutes? How do you protect yourself and your family, provide critical first aid to someone injured, get a person out of a house on fire, and all the other bad things that can happen in our modern society in the blink of an eye.
What I will call the Minuteman is the citizen that is equipped, armed, and prepared to respond to emergencies. The emergency may be small and local: a single person injured in a car accident, for example. Or it might be a catastrophic event involving hundreds of people and large swathes of the countryside: a passenger train derailment. It might be that thing that every armed citizen thinks about, the criminal with a gun that has to be stopped. But, honestly, that is much more rare than the person with a bad injury from falling and breaking a bone or a car accident or a house fire. So, if you plan to be an armed citizen, you really need to extend your preparation to all manner of emergencies and needs. You need to be a Minuteman, ready to respond rapidly to protect and aid your community every single day.
— Eric from Security n Cigars in If You’re a Minuteman…
The boy scout motto: Be Prepared.
The boy scout slogan: Do a Good Deed(turn) Daily.
Together: Be Prepared to do a Good Deed Daily.
These days it’s gonna be hard to tell if the group of people coming over the hill are here to help or here to loot.
That’s why perimeter security is so important. Beware of exploding garden Gnomes, bird houses and feeders.
Hey thanks for the link! Just noticed it as I was checking traffic sources. There’s more on the modern Minuteman coming. I already dropped one on clothing and (not firearms) gear: https://securityncigars.substack.com/p/if-youre-a-minuteman-dress-the-part …. Sometime soon will be a post on EDC firearms.