How to Organize Community Self Defense

Americans are obsessed with the 2nd amendment. They think that guns are the ultimate backstop to tyranny. This view is not entirely wrong, but it misses the most crucial element that is required if firearms are going to be used to defend against tyranny.

That’s where the “well regulated militia” piece comes in. Conservatives like to tout the phrase “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” whenever there’s a mass shooting. They blame the deaths on mental illness and the deranged individual involved. Again, not wholly inaccurate, but missing crucial pieces of the puzzle.

When it comes to resistance, organization is king. For example take the ongoing civil war within Burma. After the military coup of Feb 2021 and brutal government crackdowns against protestors that followed, pro-democracy activists, ethnic armed organizations, and other groups organized into resistance forces. These groups were woefully lacking in arms in the beginning, often relying on old bolt-action rifles, single-shot shotguns, and home-made weapons including 3D printed guns(like the FGC-9).

That didn’t stop the resistance. They mounted a successful campaign and now the military Junta only controls 21% of the country and are desperately clinging to power.

To focus on accumulating guns and ammo while ignoring the very basic principles of creating and joining resistance organizations is to build a car without an engine. The people of Burma were able to throw-off the yolk of their oppressive military junta because they formed a large coalition of people that worked together to fight back against the military junta. Would they have had more success if they’d been better armed in the beginning? Almost certainly. But what would have happened if they’d been extremely well armed, yet not organized?

That’s the current situation in the United States. We are the most well-armed nation on the planet. But the people are not organized. What would have happened in Burma if the people were heavily armed, yet did not organize? The junta would have simply used their overwhelming military firepower to take out the most vocal dissidents one by one, and as long as the people never coalesced together, they could have very easily continued to take the dissidents out until people were too afraid to speak out. One here, five there, a dozen in another town. It doesn’t matter how well armed they are, one person with 20 rifles is still just one person.

Americans Must Form Community Self Defense Groups

It is the legal right and duty of Americans to organize themselves into community self defense organizations. This is written into our very constitution. We didn’t even have a standing Army at the beginning of the nation. Just groups of citizens, organized into militias, that could be called upon to defend the nation against enemies foreign and domestic.

It’s time to return to our roots.

Start with a Team

It is time for you to form a team. Right now. Stop waiting for George Washington to rise from the grave. One day a national leader might rise up amidst all of this, but that can only happen if there are large-scale grass-roots organizations already in place.

Find your team locally. Meet face to face. This is important for several reasons:

• Every platform online is compromised. NSA and other federal agencies using Palantir AI technology are monitoring every single thing published on the internet.

• If you only know your team through online channels you can’t defend each other in a SHTF situation. What are you going to do, hold a zoom meeting when floods are washing away your home?

Some ideas for meeting like minded people:

• Local protests

• Local political organizations

• Local volunteer organizations

• Local religious communities(Unitarian church, Quakers, etc.)

Most of these local organizations have an online presence. That’s great. Use those online platforms. Join the Facebook groups, join the discords, talk to people, and then meet up face to face. Remember it is legal and constitutionally protected to form self defense organizations but you still need to be smart about it. Any communication that you don’t want a Gestapo agent to read should be done in person. Use Signal as another layer of security but even Signal is not fool-proof.

Hold Exercises

You’ve found a few like-minded people within your local community. Now what? Now you hold exercises.

Don’t worry it’s not as intimidating as it sounds. I’ll give you the blueprint for your first exercise. Buy some beers, some food and snacks, burgers to throw on the grill. Your team meets up and as you drink beers and BBQ you ask these question:

• Where will we go if an emergency arises? For example if the power grid goes down, or a group of white supremacists roll into town. Where will we go? This is called a rally point.

• When an emergency arises, what equipment and gear will we need to bring with us when we travel to the rally point? Food, water, shelter, etc. This is where you think through how you need to start packing so that you can move on a moment’s notice, what kind of equipment do you need to have laid out and ready to roll out the door. Maybe you stage some of this equipment(like extra food and water) at the rally point so that you don’t need to carry it all there in an emergency.

• What are the most likely emergencies that could occur in your community? Are you a large immigrant population that might experience ICE raids? Are you near white supremacist strongholds and maybe will experience incursions by white supremacist militias? Natural disasters and power outages are a major concern for many parts of the country.

Just get together in a relaxed setting, talk, brainstorm, and think. What are the likely scenarios that you might encounter and what will you do?

Learn from how people are organizing and banding together in Los Angeles. These community self defense organizations have sprung up and people spread information about where ICE raids are happening in real time and then bring their community together on short notice to defend their community.

After the Battle of France and the second French-German armistice, the lives of the French continued unchanged at first. The German occupation authorities and the Vichy régime became increasingly brutal and intimidating. Most civilians remained neutral, but both the occupation of French territory[14][15] and German policy inspired the formation of paramilitary groups dedicated to both active and passive resistance.

Get organized now. Don’t wait until for the increasing brutality and intimidation before you take action.

Next Steps

You’ll figure it out. This is not complicated. You don’t need military training or background. This is as basic as humanity itself. Humans band together to survive. That is what you are doing. Finding your tribe and community and making plans for how you will support each other

Keep connecting with like minded people. Keep holding informal get-togethers where you discuss scenarios and think through what you’ll do in those scenarios. See this more in-depth article on the same topic.