On the Modern Minuteman The Everyday Marksman

Today’s episode is a fairly short one. I want to touch on the idea of a modern Minuteman. It’s something that a lot of people romanticize, but we never really define. In this discussion, I want to talk a bit about what it means to me and what I think we need to do.



This isn’t a discussion about the contents of a go bag or the kind of rifle to bring to the fight. No, it’s about the philosophy of being an engaged citizen ready to put aside individual goals for the sake of maintaining liberty.



Let’s start with a long-ish quote from, of all people John F. Kennedy.





In my own native state of Massachusetts, the battle for American freedom was begun by the thousands of farmers and tradesmen who made up the Minute Men -- citizens who were ready to defend their liberty at a moment's notice. Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom. The cause of liberty, the cause of America, cannot succeed with any lesser effort.

John F. Kennedy, 1961



The Minuteman



A lot of folks often confuse the Militia and the Minuteman. Even JFK made that mistake in the quote. In truth they were related, but very different.



Militia service in the 1700s was compulsory. Every able-bodied male was expected to participate in the common defense of their community and state, if needed. Of that group, a select group of volunteers were asked to become Minutemen. This group was selected from the Militia roles for their youth, strength, stamina, and motivation.



They were also volunteers.



I suppose you could liken them to a colonial-era QRF or special operations force. The history of the Minuteman goes back at least 100 years before the American Revolution, though. It wasn’t a new concept by any means.



What I’m interested in is those additional qualities: strength, stamina, motivation.



The Everyday Marksman is all about promoting a well-rounded citizenry through the study and practice of tactical skills. Buying the equipment is the easy part, it’s putting in the work that everyone struggles to do.



Even more important is finding others in the community to do the same. As a culture, we’ve become complacent. We give up taking care of problems ourselves in favor of looking to some government authority, typically law enforcement, to settle the dispute for us. This is counter-productive, as the average citizen feels less and less responsibility for taking care of their country.



The Community Problem



I ran a poll within our community, The Marksman’s Quarter, about how many neighbors would members trust to have their back in hard times. The answer was a paltry 6%.



That’s dismal. And the even more serious problem is that we inherently feel isolated in wanting to be ready to protect our homes and community from bad actors. People, as a whole, are shockingly easy to influence with “the crowd.” Most people will go along with what the crowd is doing even if they intellectually know it’s a bad idea. That’s how we end up with such widespread riots and poor behavior on social media.



The same thing works in reverse. If enough people model positive behavior, then “people” feel pressure to fall in line and mirror it.



It’s not going to be easy. In fact, overcoming the media bias and cultural negativity may be insurmountable. But it’s a worthy fight. Keeping our heads buried in the sand hoping that someone else will do it is exactly how our country got where it is right now.



Wrapping Up



I don’t have any fancy pictures for this one. I don’t have a list of things to teach you.