Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few months, you are aware that an organization called the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps has deployed volunteers along parts of the U.S./Mexico border. Their mission is to spot potential illegal aliens crossing the border and report this information to the U.S. Border Patrol. Although a number of the Minutemen carried firearms, there were no illegal gun-related incidents reported. In case anyone needs to be reminded, carrying a firearm is not inherently illegal in the U.S. as long as applicable federal, state and local laws are observed.

Not surprisingly, the ACLU and its kindred spirits claimed they interviewed participants in the Minutemen operation who spouted racist rhetoric and salivated at the prospect of shooting illegal immigrants. If these individuals were actually Minutemen, they would have known that the Minuteman pledge clearly states, "There is no tolerance among the Minutemen for racism or bigotry."

But as long as we are demanding ideological purity within politically active groups, perhaps the liberals would like to explain how self-described violent anarchists were able to infiltrate the anti-IMF/World Bank protesters, who demand total debt relief for tinhorn dictators around the globe. While our Constitution protects free speech, it does not protect those who smash windows and assault police officers. Politically active organizations at both ends of the ideological spectrum may attract individuals who only pretend to support the stated principles of the organizations. These individuals cannot be weeded out, but they can be disavowed by the political movements they claim to represent.

The Minutemen plan to move their operations northward, to the U.S./Canada border. There are at least 200 unmanned cross-border roads that allow illegal immigrants (including terrorists) to enter the U.S. undetected. As they did along the southern border, some of the Minutemen will carry legal firearms. The presence of guns makes liberals uneasy. The Bellingham (Washington) Herald described the Minutemen as "a controversial group known for gathering armed volunteers to patrol the U.S./Mexico border." By contrast, "As long as [the Minutemen] are abiding by the laws of the jurisdiction they are in, they can go wherever they want to go," said Border Patrol spokesman Joe Giuliano. "If they misuse their weapons or carry them without authorization, then that would be a cause for local [authorities] to take action." Sounds fair enough.

The liberals refer to the Minutemen as "militia," as if that were a pejorative term. Few people actually know what the word means. Title 10, Section 311 of the U.S. Code says: "The militia of the U.S. consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and…under 45 years of age who are or who have made a declaration of intention to become citizens of the U.S."

The law divides the militia into two parts. The first part is "the organized militia--the National Guard and the Naval Militia." The second part is "the unorganized militia--members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia." In other words, there are literally millions of people in the citizen's militia.

The concept of the citizen's militia is enshrined in the Constitution. It is reflective of a post-Revolutionary aversion to maintenance of a standing army. Some state constitutions and laws further define the militia and delineate the authority of state governors to call up the militia in times of crisis. The late President John F. Kennedy spoke of the value of citizen soldiers: "Today we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom."

The citizen's militia is unorganized. It is not a private army, a band of vigilantes or a ghostly horde of nightriders. Some disreputable groups may call themselves militias, but they are not legitimate ones as envisioned by the Founding Fathers and described in federal law.

Most self-described militias are patriotic, law-abiding groups who understand that, in this country, change is achieved at the ballot box, not with an ammunition box. As the Indiana Citizens Volunteer Militia states on its website: "Our goal is to assist duly elected, sworn and bonded public officials in time of emergency… The militia is not to be used as a forum or launching point for any particular religious or political agenda."