Recently a chief of police made a comment about the difficulties posed by allowing 'civilians' to open carry weapons. While the general concern can be related to, what is up with this habit of 'stealing fire' from the citizenry? Just something to think about, what is often admitted openly and standing in plain sight. Professional police and soldiers often call non-police, non-firefighters or non-soldiers 'civilians' or 'civvies'. What is the correlating opposite word of civilian? Military or militia. So by calling you a civilian, are they admitting to be military or militia.
The Original & Proper Meaning of Militia
The original and proper meaning of the word 'militia' extends to all emergency response: law enforcement, military-class defense, firefighting, search-and-rescue, emergency medical along with general disaster response. Military-class emergency response is simply one aspect of the militia.
But...
The constitutions of many states clearly indicate that the militia is composed of all able-bodied male citizens. So are you really a 'civilian' or is there some kind of widespread error or mental virus going around?
According to 10 U.S.C. 311, 'the militia of the United States' consists of:
(1) 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 United States--subject to exceptions provided at section 313 of Title 32 of the U.S. Code, and
(2) female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
There are two classes of the militia:
(1) the organized militia;
(2) the unorganized militia.
So if you are male citizen of the United States between the ages of 17 to 45 and part of the unorganized militia of the United States, how could you possibly e a civilian!?? It is possible, however, if you are not a citizen of the United States that you could be able-bodied and not be part of the militia of the United States.
Militias of the Several States
Picking a random one of the several states, according to the Missouri Revised Statutes Chapter 41 41.050:
So if you are an able-bodied resident of the State of Missouri or are an able-bodied citizen the State of Missouri: HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY BE A CIVILIAN!?!?!?The militia of the state shall include all able-bodied citizens and all other able-bodied residents, 41.070 (3) The unorganized militia shall consist of all persons liable to serve in the militia but not commissioned or enlisted in the organized militia. {Note: This is a statutory definition.}
How about another random pick: the State of California. According to Wikipedia, the California Military & Veterans Code § 560 (unless amended) defines the unorganized militia of California as consisting of: "all persons liable to service in the militia, but not members of the National Guard, the State Military Reserve, or the Naval Militia." All persons liable for service is defined as all able-bodied male citizens and declared citizens between 18 and 45 years old. If you are an able-bodied male citizen of of the State of California aged 18 or 45, according to California statute, it seems that you're not actually a civilian.
What About Texas?
However there are states which prohibit the idea of militias that aren't directly and immediately state sponsored. The State of Texas is said to be one of them. The State of Texas doesn't necessarily define the unorganized militia in statute. So in the State of Texas, under modern statute at least, if a citizen or resident of the State of Texas isn't part of the organized militia they might rightly be regarded under statute to be a 'civilian'. However, there could be some Federal overlap that provides for the applicability of 10 U.S.C. 311 for citizens of the United States.
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