The reason why we now have a standing army is that militias failed to show up during the Revolutionary War. Then, dramatically, state militias failed to show up for the War of 1812, which cost the United States the Battle of Queenston Heights. After other failures of militias to show up, the Dick Act was passed in 1903, giving the US the ability to now have a standing army and doing away with the state militias. The current attitude amongst “Patriots” seems to be the same and has never changed. Constitutionally, the United States was never supposed to have a standing army, but because of our failures to want to defend our nation and prepare ourselves, we ended up having to form one.

The lesson from this history is not that Americans should simply trust the government to defend them, but that a nation cannot rely on the idea of an armed citizenry if those citizens are unwilling or unable to actually answer the call when their country needs them. The militia system was built around the assumption that citizens would maintain their readiness and take responsibility for the defense of their communities and nation. When that assumption repeatedly failed, the government was forced to develop a more permanent and organized military structure. Today, many people who strongly identify as “Patriots” emphasize the importance of the militia and the Second Amendment while overlooking the responsibility that historically came with that system. If we want to invoke the traditions of the Founders, we should be willing to acknowledge both the rights and the responsibilities that came with them.

Ultimately, history shows that rights and responsibilities have always gone hand in hand. A free nation cannot be sustained by people demanding the privileges of citizenship while refusing the responsibilities that make those privileges possible. If the American people want to preserve the principles that were intended to protect a free republic, then being prepared to defend that republic has to be part of the conversation—not merely owning a firearm and calling yourself a “Patriot.”