Call out the posse

A log cabin, set in a small clearing in a vast forest. A pioneer family, sleeps under patchwork quilts, on corncob mattresses. In the darkness outside, a horse gallops down the dirt trail to the house. The rider shouts out the hue and cry, calling upon the militia. The householder strikes a light, drags on his pants and his boots. He reaches for the rifle set on pegs over the door. He rushes out into the night.

America's national mythology has reverence for the militia-men who stood shoulder to shoulder on the bridge at Concord. Citizen-soldiers and their flintlock rifles are woven into the cloth of Liberty. Movies and television shows set in the American West the sheriff called out citizen-soldiers to defend civilization from bandits and outlaws-- the posse.

Organized private violence was part of American culture from the earliest times, and shaped American's relationship with our government and our guns.