Debate Over Reaction to VA Gun Control Confiscation Threat Tyranny

Oath Keepers national leadership and some of our best trainers are on their way to Virginia to work boots on the ground, starting right after New Years Day, to do all we can to assist in organizing, training, and advising local town and county resistance to the unconstitutional and dangers actions of the Governor. We will stay for the duration, until the work is done! Among our trainers are U.S. Army Special Forces veterans and SWAT law enforcement trainers. They will focus on helping Sheriffs raise and train an official armed posse in each county, under command of the Sheriff, and on organizing, training, and equipping official county militia, under the authority of the county government. In addition, they will form up and train Spartan Training groups in each county, to bring all patriotic Americans together to train in critical skills so they are a pool of well trained volunteers that constitutional sheriffs and patriotic county officials can call on to assist in time of need, and that can serve as posse and/or militia. See below for details. WE NEED MORE TRAINERS! If you are an experienced military or law enforcement trainer, please step up and volunteer to help. Email us at: [email protected]. Put “volunteer military trainer” or “volunteer LEO trainer” in subject line. See below for details.

Go here for details on the rally. IF you are within driving range and can attend, please do! The goal here will be to maximize the size of the audience at this rally, to help send the message to the VA legislature that the people of Virginia want them to do the right thing and refuse to vote for these atrocious and dangerous bills that violate the rights of the people – and that the people of the United States stand in unity with them.

We urge you to dress like average Americans, not in cammo or full battle rattle. Our purpose is to be force multipliers for the people of Virginia. Oath Keepers shirts, hats, etc are fine, or any other patriotic gear, but please no camouflage or military gear. We want to present as quiet professionals. That is according to the wishes of the event organizers and of the Virginia patriot groups we are already working with, who have the most skin in the game in their home state. Please respect their wishes and help them in their chosen strategy. They also prefer that we go concealed carry for those who will be carrying. And they prefer that there be no long guns at the rally. Again, this is their preference and we owe it to them to abide by that preference. We are there to support and assist them in their political fight to try to keep these bills from being passed in the first place.

2. Oath Keepers is deploying a leadership team/training team in advance of the Jan 20 rally and that team will remain in the ground in VA after the rally, for the duration to do the following:

A. Urge all counties to follow the example of Tazewell County, VA by passing a resolution establishing an official county militia.

Tazewell County, VA has already taken the momentous step of passing a resolution to establish an official county militia, under the authority of the duly elected county political leaders. That is historic. A resolution to establish a formal militia in the county is a critical first step. And every other county in VA should follow Tazewell County’s 

Oath Keepers Founder, Stewart Rhodes, will be there in person to lead this leadership team and he will put his legal training from Yale Law School to use in assisting in the drafting of any needed resolutions. It is critical that the people of Virginia use their official county governments to organize militia units instead of just organizing private groups. An official county militia would be acting under, and pursuant to, the full authority of the elected government of the county, not just a private “militia”. That is an important distinction, especially considering the clear intent of the anti-gun leftist to weaponize the state statute against paramilitary training to try to shut down any and all training for self defense or the carrying of weapons for self defense When a town or county government stands up, that pits one government entity against another, and puts patriots in a much stronger position. 

The Founding Fathers fully utilized their town and county governments when resisting the tyranny of the Crown. We must do the same when resisting the tyranny of the governor and the state legislature. NOTE: this does NOT mean we will not be working with non-official volunteer militia in Virginia. We already are. We just want to maximize the use of county government as a mechanism of organization and authority. 

B. Assist in the raising up, organizing, training, and equipping of official county militias. 

Once a resolution has been passed to establish an official militia in a county, the next step is to actually organize, train, and equip that militia unit or units in each county, comprised of the able bodied men and women of that county (should be considered a duty for the men, but an option for the women who can also serve). To assist in doing this, Oath Keepers is sending some of our most experienced military and law enforcement trainers, including former U..S. Special Forces trainers and SWAT certified LEO instructors to VA to assist with forming and training these militia units. We will stay on the ground in VA as long as necessary to get this critical work done.

If you are a QUALIFIED and experienced military or law enforcement trainer or veteran with sufficient experience to train others, please do volunteer to assist as a trainer. To volunteer, email us at: [email protected] and put “Volunteer military (or LEO) trainer” in subject line. Please provide any documentation of your service and training you may have, such as DD214, training certs, school graduation certs, etc Please also submit a copy of you drivers license, your CCW if you have one, and your full home address and phone number. All volunteer trainers must go through a background check. No exceptions. NOTE: You DO NOT have had to have served as a formal trainer to be qualified to teach. We would consider an experienced infantry NCO, for example, as qualified to teach others what he knows (or whatever your MOS was). If you are competent and know your stuff, step up! Of course, if you were a formal trainer, even better. But we will put you to work if you are well trained.

C. Reach out to all the sheriffs and encourage them to form armed posses. 

We will go to the counties that have declared themselves to be Second Amendment Sanctuary Counties (with the sheriff making similar declarations) and urge them to take the necessary next step of forming an official sheriff posse under the command of the sheriff. Declarations are a wonderful first step. But they need to be followed up by actually organizing a real, no-joke sheriff posse. A great example of what is possible is the 3,000 man posse that Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona. Sheriff Arpaio having that large posse was a game changer in his Mexican Stand-offs with the Obama Administration. It made it a very messy and risky proposition for Obama to try to play hard ball and use force.

Bottom line is we will reach out to all county governments, sheriff departments, and town governments who have declared themselves to be Second Amendment Sanctuaries to offer our assistance in organizing and training both sheriff Posse and official county militia, as well as in drafting any resolutions, training curriculum or other documents needed.

Open to all citizens local to the Constitution, regardless of what group they may be in. (excluding anyone who seeks to overthrow the U.S. government or who discriminates along racial lines).

These will NOT be official units, but will instead be akin to what the Founding Fathers called “training bands” of locals who get together to train, cross-train (sharing skills) and to iron out the bugs of working together. The goal is a trained pool of men and women in each county – as large as possible, and as inclusive as possible- that can serve as a turn-key posse or militia for the county. This means the people are ALREADY organizing and training, even if the county sheriff will not yet from a posse, or even if the county government has not yet followed Tazwell County’s example by passing a resolution to form an official militia for the county. Time is of the essence, and the patriots of Virginia must start training and organizing now, other than waiting until after those official units are formed.

Whether you are a three percenter, an Oath Keeper, in a privately organized volunteer militia, some other group, or in no group at all, you will be welcome to train with us. The goal is to train EVERYONE in the county who is loyal to the Constitution. We will train them in six critical skill categories: safe, effective firearms use and small unit tactics (in both a military and law enforcement role); emergency medical; emergency communications; emergency engineering; emergency preparedness and disaster relief; community intelligence (for law enforcement and military roles). Among the goals of such groups will be the establishment of armed neighborhood watches, armed church security, preparing churches to be places of refuge, forming and training up town and county volunteer emergency response teams, and organizing as a turn-key posse in waiting and/or militia in waiting, for the county to use.

Additionally, those Spartan Training Groups can work together to urge the Sheriff to form a posse and use them in it, and they can work to urge and encourage their County government leaders to form an official militia.

3. Outreach to all levels of military and law enforcement in Virginia. WE NEED VOLUNTEERS! 

We will be directly reaching out to all levels of military and law enforcement in Virginia that the governor may try to use to enforce his unconstitutional tyranny. We will do so through several different outreach methods and missions. Stay tuned for details. However, if you are a military officer or NCO (current, former, or retired), who wants to help us outreach to the Virginia National Guard, or a law enforcement officer (current, former, or retired) who wants to help outreach to VA LEOs, please email us at: [email protected]     Put “VA military outreach volunteer” or “VA LEO outreach volunteer” in subject line. We will give details to vetted volunteers.

Please help us all you can in this mission, either boots on the ground, or by donating to support those who CAN go, to serve in person. Every little bit helps.

Our trainers will need travel expenses, as well as food, lodging, and training supplies and equipment. Please help us.

For the Republic, 

Oath Keepers