Did I hear my name?
Yep, I saw this thread and clicked immediately!!
I've not read the article yet as I have an early start tomorrow, but I'm familiar with the manual mentioned from news reports. Lithuania is also actively conscripting.
The issue with Lithuania is two-fold, if I think off the top of my head. First is their geography. They are sandwiched between Belarus, a Kremlin sympathiser (puppet state?) and Kaliningrad which is bristling with military hardwear (think Gibraltar during WWII). The second issue is that, unlike the other two Baltic States, Lithuania gave all those living there citizenship regardless of ethnicity when it gained independence.
It's worth remembering that many Russians, who had been "imported" into the new Soviet republics, and their children stayed after independence. Neither Latvia nor Estonia did this. Citizenship went to ethnic Estonians or those who could prove that their families had lived in the Rep' of Estonia that was created in 1919.
So for Estonia and Latvia it means meddling by Russia which claims discrimination of it's people (although it has not rushed to offer them its own citizenship), but for Lithuania it means the Russian population has democratic voting rights and not all of them, I can say from my Estonian experience, have the interests of "their" country at heart. So in all these countries there is essential a real or potential Fifth Column but Lithuania's has the vote!!
On a broader scale there comes the EU. With the Paris attacks last year, some self-serving career politicians have decided to try and change the Firearms Directive across Europe even though none of the guns used came under the Directive because they were all acquired or altered illegally. Anyway, that proposal hopes to make semi-autos illegal for the private citizen (you can search fro my thread on rifle choice in Europe for more details). If it goes through in the form many of the ill-informed do-gooders would like, then this militia may be opting for lever actions and revolvers because the ban is not just aimed at rifles...
Whilst I'd like to see the just decision made and it binned, I'm banking on a it being a case of keep what you've got but you can't sell it or pass it on and perhaps a mag capacity limit, but it could well be an outright ban, even though all the evidence and reasoning for any of the above has been debunked comprehensively by experts and rejected by member state police heads, defence and interior ministers again and again.
And they wonder why the public have lost faith in the European project....
Anyway, if it goes to an outright ban, those rifle owners may find they need to use their wheel-guns to fight their way to that Marlin or Remington 700.
Over here in Estonia they have the Defence League: it is like the National Guard on your end or Territorial Army in the UK. Members of the public sign up, do exercises, get training and even weapons (Galils and M14 semis). Whilst Estonia's army is about 6,000 strong, the Defence League is about 30,000! That is a lot of rifles hunkered down in the forest waiting for .... whoever were to come uninvited!!
So, yes, it's all a big mess and I am still trying to decide if recent changes at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave will alter things in this respect, make them worse or perhaps better. Either way, I now know what it is like to live in a country that feels insecure: it is not a nice feeling and so the Lithuanians have my sympathies and best wishes.
