| Mississippi Minuteman |
| "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." -U.S. Constitution 2nd Amendment |
| Vision-friendly page Here |
| "The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American...the unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people." ~ Tench Coxe, 1789 |
| "Liberty is lost through complacency and a subservient mindset. When we accept or even welcome automobile checkpoints, random searches, mandatory identification cards, and paramilitary police in our streets, we have lost a vital part of our American heritage. America was born of protest, revolution, and mistrust of government. Subservient societies neither maintain nor deserve freedom for long." ~ Congressman Ron Paul, Aug 9, 2004 |
| ARE YOU DOING YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY FOR "HOMELAND SECURITY"? |
| First Inaugural Address, March 4 1829 Andrew Jackson "Considering standing armies as dangerous to free governments in time of peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present establishment, nor disregard that salutary lesson of political experience which teaches that the military should be held subordinate to the civil power. The gradual increase of our Navy, whose flag has displayed in distant climes our skill in navigation and our fame in arms; the preservation of our forts, arsenals, and dockyards, and the introduction of progressive improvements in the discipline and science of both branches of our military service are so plainly prescribed by prudence that I should be excused for omitting their mention sooner than for enlarging on their importance. But the bulwark of our defense is the national militia, which in the present state of our intelligence and population must render us invincible. As long as our Government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of person and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending; and so long as it is worth defending a patriotic militia will cover it with an impenetrable aegis. Partial injuries and occasional mortifications we may be subjected to, but a million of armed freemen, possessed of the means of war, can never be conquered by a foreign foe. To any just system, therefore, calculated to strengthen this natural safeguard of the country I shall cheerfully lend all the aid in my power." |
| Mississippi Militia Laws |
| CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI Article 9, Section 214. Persons subject to military duty. All able-bodied male citizens of the state between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years shall be liable to military duty in the militia of this state, in such manner as the legislature may provide. SOURCES: 1869 art IX § 1. Article 9, Section 220. Exemption of militia from arrest for certain offenses. The militia shall be exempt from arrest during their attendance on musters, and in going to and returning from the same, except in case of treason, felony, or breach of the peace. SOURCES: 1869 art IX § 8. MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972 As Amended SEC. 33-5-1. Composition of the Militia. The militia of the State of Mississippi shall consist of all able-bodied citizens of the state between the ages of seventeen (17) and sixty-two (62) years, who are not exempt by law of this state or of the United States, together with all other able-bodied persons who shall voluntarily enlist or accept commission, appointment or assignment to duty therein, subject to such classifications as may be hereinafter prescribed. The militia shall be divided into three (3) classes: The national guard, the Mississippi State Guard, and the unorganized militia. The unorganized militia shall consist of all persons liable to service in the militia, but not members of the national guard or the Mississippi State Guard. A seventeen-year-old person shall not be allowed to enlist or be assigned to duty without the written consent of both parents, if living, or one (1) parent if one (1) is deceased, or if both parents are deceased, the guardian of such person. SOURCES: Codes, 1942, Sec. 8519-21; Laws, 1966, ch. 539, Sec. 11; 1973, ch. 310, Sec. 1, eff from and after passage (approved March 2, 1973). SEC. 33-5-9. Unorganized militia; when subject to duty. The unorganized militia, or any part thereof, shall not be subject to any active military duty, except when called into the service of the United States or when called into the service of this state by the governor in case of war, rebellion, insurrections, invasion, tumult, riot, breach of the peace, public calamity or catastrophe or other state or national emergency or imminent danger thereof. When the militia of this state, or any part thereof, is called forth under the constitution and laws of the United States, the governor shall first order out for service the national guard, and then the Mississippi State Guard, or such parts thereof as may be necessary, and if the number available be insufficient, he shall then order out such part of the unorganized militia as he may deem that the necessity requires. SOURCES: Codes, 1942, Sec. 8519-25; Laws, 1966, ch. 539, Sec. 15, eff from and after June 1, 1966. |
| The Right to Self-Defense |
| "The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) asserts that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed." -Thomas Jefferson |
| "That the People have a right to keep and bear Arms; that a well regulated Militia, composed of the Body of the People, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe Defence of a free state." -George Mason, declaration of "the essential and unalienable Rights of the People," later adopted by the Virginia ratification convention, 1788 |
| "God grants liberty only to those who love it and are always ready to guard and defend it." - Daniel Webster |
| "One man with courage is a majority." -Thomas Jefferson |
| "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32 |
| The Citizen Soldier |
| "To the framers "militia" means the average Joe [a]nd all his friends and neighbors, acting together to preserve their Union. The Founding Fathers ha[d] a strong distrust of standing armies, hence the invalidation of those gun-haters who think the National Guard fulfills this function. The purpose of the Second Amendment is clearly to enable the average citizen to protect himself individually, and the national collectively, from tyranny. Moreover, the phrase "right of the citizen" is a phrase used rarely in the Constitution. It both proclaims the right to do something, and recognizes that that right pre-dates the Constitution itself. That's simple grammar, requiring no constitutional lawyer to explain it. If one can argue that the 2nd Amendment has no meaning in contemporary society, one can similarly argue that the 1st Amendment can be similarly ignored, since the phraseology is largely the same. The short version is, don't mess with the Constitution." -Tom Clancy, writing on alt.books.tom-clancy, 29 May 1995 09:59:09 -0400 |
| "It is undoubtedly true that all citizens capable of bearing arms constitute the reserved military force or reserve militia of the United States as well as of the states, and, in view of this prerogative of the general government, as well as of its general powers, the states cannot, even laying the constitutional provision in question out of view, prohibit the people from keeping and bearing arms, so as to deprive the United States of their rightful resource for maintaining the public security, and disable the people from performing their duty to the general government." -U.S. Supreme Court, Presser v. Illinois, 116 U.S. 252, 265 (1886) |
| 'The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.' The right of the whole people, old and young, men, women, and boys, and not militia only, to keep and bear arms of every description, and not such merely as are used by the militia, shall not be infringed, curtailed, or broken in upon, in the smallest degree; and all for the important end to be attained: the rearing up and qualifying a well-regulated militia, so vitally necessary to the security of a free state. Our opinion is that any law, State or Federal, is repugnant to the Constitution, and void, which contravenes this right." - Georgia Supreme Court, Nunn v. Georgia, (1 Kel.) 243, 249-51 (1846) |
| "For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security. -Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Eighth "State of the Union" address [Annual Message], November 8, 1808 |
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were once our countrymen." -Samuel Adams |
| Mississippi Minuteman supports the men and women of our military and our Vets! |
| A Must-See for Everyone! click here |
| Some graphics from http://www.giz-net.com/gizeasel/index.html |
| Copyright © 2006 Mississippi Minuteman All Rights Reserved. |
| MINUTEMAN |
| "Self-defense is Nature's eldest law." John Dryden |
| “The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.” Albert Einstein |
| Defending ourselves, our homes, our communities, our nation and our liberties... |