Would it make sense for the Federation to use part time volunteers to defend Federation space? With an organization resembling a coast guard?
Militia
- Thread starter Tim Walker
- Start date
Um... I don't think so. Running a starship is highly technical and requires professional crews. Even the Maquis was kind of pushing it.
The Coast Guard isn't part time.
There may be plenty of opportunities for citizens to defend the Federation or their home planets, but what those opportunities are will be limited by th expertise required and the time and cost of training. All branches of the US military run reserves, and people can do cool stuff, like fly advanced air craft. However, those pilots came as pilots, perhaps joining the reserves after years of regular service. Some might be positions for people permanently invovled in the reserves. Some opportunities are simply unavailable.
Why in the world would it ever be needed? The Federation is a post-scarcity, conflict-free utopia.
Right?
RIGHT???
Right?
RIGHT???
Discussion of colonial defense.
You do know that the basic Photon Torpedo is a WMD in itself if used within the Atmosphere of a M-Class planet, right?
And everybody throws them around willy nilly in space.
Each StarFleet Torpedo at normal full yield has 1.5 kg of M/A-M on-board which ≈ 64.44 MegaTons.
That's in between the 50 MegaTon Tsar Bomba that was tested and the 100 MegaTon Proposed Tsar Bomba.
Average Spacers who encounter your typical Space Pirates need Beam Weapons & Photon Torpedoes just to survive.
Same with Colonial / Outpost Defense.
What you call WMD's are just "Regular Arms" for 'Militias & Spacers' use to defend themselves.
In general, what constitutes a militia can vary. It might be anything from a full blown military (like the Bajorans) to a group of armed civilians. We don't even know exactly what the Federation's laws on private ownership of weapons is. The only armed civilian I remember seeing was Guinan, who had a non-Federation issue rifle behind her bar.
I'm not sure Earth would need a militia, given its very low crime rate. But, I would think that they would be commonplace on human colonies.
I'm not sure Earth would need a militia, given its very low crime rate. But, I would think that they would be commonplace on human colonies.
Considering Guinan who lives within the UFP borders and on UFP Property owns a personal weapon, it's safe to say that private ownership is allowed.
Same with Retired Admiral Picard at his Chateau.
Depends on what part of Earth, some of the more rural areas might have it.
The more Urban and Suburban areas might not.
Guinan was on a Starfleet vessel at the time and her weapon was wielded in Ten Forward; I think it's very possible she had special dispensation.
Picard was former Starfleet so may have also had special dispensation. At any rate, I'm not sure they're a good baseline for establishing whether the Federation allows for private ownership of weapons by civilians.
Picard was former Starfleet so may have also had special dispensation. At any rate, I'm not sure they're a good baseline for establishing whether the Federation allows for private ownership of weapons by civilians.
What did you think I was referring to?
I dunno, hand phasers.
But Vaporizing Buildings & Cars aren't that destructive in comparison.
Even with hand phasers, in the right hands one can kill a ton of people. See: "The Omega Glory" (Star Trek).
"We drained four of our phasers, and they still came. We killed thousands and they still came."
It's hard to tell a dramatic story when there's no conflict.Why in the world would it ever be needed? The Federation is a post-scarcity, conflict-free utopia.
Right?
RIGHT???
On a side tangent.
I really dislike the trend in Vertical Video.
It's such a bad idea for long term video preservation.
You lose so much information when you reframe older video into that new Vertical Video format.
Wider Horizontal Video I get; going Vertical to accomadate SmartPhone Ergonomics is just due to inherent human laziness of not wanting to rotate the SmartPhone Camera 90°.
That's just bad & lazy.
Similar threads
