“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.”

The Second Amendment was put to the test this week, albeit abroad and not at home. This past Thursday, a band of South African citizens, currently suffering under the thumb of a wicked and lawless government and emboldened criminals, restored law and order and security after a gang of thugs robbed an armored truck and murdered the driver.

From a Gateway Pundit article yesterday:

On Thursday, 9/21, local farmer militiamen in South Africa stopped a gang of 15 armed robbers armed with AK-47s who had just robbed an armored car, killing the driver. The local volunteers apprehended the fugitives after a high-speed chase, including a dangerous Mozambican criminal wanted for murder of a police officer.

According to a local source, the police responded, but fled the scene when they came under fire, at which point a “community crime watch group” known as Hoedspruit Farmwatch stepped in, setting up makeshift barricades with boulders. The armed robbers then shot at the farmers, who returned fire in a clash that lasted around 20 minutes. After all was said and done, the members of HF were unhurt, while four of the gang members were dead and another three were injured; see the tweet below:

Hero farmers from Hoedspruit kills 4 CIT robbers and wounds 3 after police flee the scene.

Full story:

Today, 22/09/2023, 15 robbers armed with automatic rifles carried out a CIT heist in Hoedspruit, killing the driver Fidelity driver. Police fled the scene when the robbers… pic.twitter.com/QtHq8KsaYp

— Willem Petzer (@willempet) September 22, 2023

(CIT stands for Cash-in-Transit.)

Additional details here:

It is further reported that the suspects started shooting at members of Hoedspruit Farmwatch who in self-defence returned fire. During the shootout, four suspects were killed and one (28) was injured and arrested on the spot. The other suspects ran into the nearby bushes and…

— Ian Cameron (@IanCameron23) September 23, 2023

Few things bring me as much joy as when I read stories in which harsh justice rains down on those who hurt the innocent, so this was certainly a “feel-good” story for someone like myself, but it’s also a good reminder of what the “militia” is, and why our very lives depend on its sustenance. These armed farmers, private citizens with personal weapons, are the militia, despite all the screaming and shouting to the contrary—the militia is neither the National Guard, nor is it a state police force, nor any other government corps.

George Mason, an anti-Federalist, purportedly said, “I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”

In the Library of Congress, you can find the text from the debates at different state conventions prior to the adoption of the federal constitution, excerpted below:

That the people have a right to keep and bear arms; that a well-regulated militia, including the body of the people capable of bearing arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence [sic] of a free state.

Federalist No. 46, penned by James Madison and arguing for a national standing army reads:

To these [federal forces] would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens, with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops.

The militia is the people, and without an armed populace, we see lawlessness as in the case of South Africa, and tyranny, realities which are completely antithetical to security, freedom, and life.

These farmers and their willingness to accept their sacred duty as the militia call to my mind Proverbs 28:1, and rather fitting given their African heritage: “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.”

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.