Maybe it’s just us, but there seems to be a lot of chatter, a lot of people of late interested in the following scenario: American citizens, armed, decide to take over a town, state … country (yeah, right). In other words, a rebellion. An insurrection. A coup d’état. An overthrow. You get the picture.

The military blog We Are The Mighty recently published a whole walkthrough of the bleak situation (it piggybacked off a 2012 article from two academics on the subject), and in decent detail, too.

If you want to read the entire zany post, by all means, click the link and do so. It’s informative, if not entirely plausible.

What caught our eye in the report was the precedent(s) for such a setting, and how — legally speaking — the United States government would deal with such a treasonous act.

They basically cited two instances: Abe Lincoln’s actions during the Civil War, and Eisenhower during the 1957 intervention in Little Rock.

And they included THE legislation that spells out the procedure for squashing an uprising. The Insurrection Act of 1807.

More or less, this:

From Title 10 US Code the President may use the militia or Armed Forces to:

§ 331 – Suppress an insurrection against a State government at the request of the Legislature or, if not in session, the Governor.

§ 332 – Suppress unlawful obstruction or rebellion against the U.S.

§ 333 – Suppress insurrection or domestic violence if it (1) hinders the execution of the laws to the extent that a part or class of citizens are deprived of Constitutional rights and the State is unable or refuses to protect those rights or (2) obstructs the execution of any Federal law or impedes the course of justice under Federal laws.)

It’s a little bit funny, or frightening, when you sit down and think about it, but in America, this is often the case — a lot of the people who carry around the little constitution booklets and rock the red, white and blue like a daily uniform are the same ones touting their freedom to revolt or secede, should they feel the need. Eschew the country, and start their own? Which, isn’t patriotic, at all. Right?

Or is it?