I am not sure where to place this discussion, so feel free to move it moderators, if you know where it should go.

I was pondering the secession of states. I was wondering what would happen to US military bases, and National Guard Armories, if a state seceeded from union and declared soveriegnty, with or without other adjacent states.

What are your thoughts? Would these bases become the enemy within? Or could the state force them to become a state, rather than Federal arsenal?

What about states that house nuclear and biological/chemical arms?

What are your thoughts?

National guard armories would be a sticky issue. Most of everything in them is actually owned by the federal government, but is easily claimed by the state. What I have personally seen is state "authorities" always have contingency plans for seizing National Guard armories and it is not the other way around. National guardsmen NEVER get access codes or clearances to get into say, state police arms rooms, but law enforcement ALWAYS get access to guard armories.

Federal bases remain federal bases, unless there is hostility over the secession. They would be considered sovereign US property, maybe with some limited sharing of jurisdiction, much like the relationship between Gitmo and the rest of Cuba, or more likely, the US bases in Okinawa and the Japanese government. In fact, the states may even opt to quickly engage in an imperial style defense pact with the US so that the troops from particular states are in military units from that particular state and go on deployments with regular federal troops under various treaties, not too unlike the way Canadian troops often deploy with US and UK military forces.

That's the "soft secession" model. We don't need to explain how the hard one goes.

The only recent example is the breakup of the Soviet Union....the various breakup nations got to keep the stuff they had on their soil.

Certain things would be hard to move: The silos in Montana, Wyoming, etc (if those states decided to secede). There aren't many chemical or bio weapons left (officially), they've pretty much all been destroyed AFAIK. Then there are issues like the nuclear waste storage facility in New Mexico, the various federal labs like Los Alamos, Sandia, Fermilab in Chicago, Jet Propulsion lab in California, etc.

This question was settled in 1860.

When South Carolina seceded they granted the federal military a time period in which they might evacuate Fort Sumpter. When Lincoln refused to remove federal troops from South Carolina's property, they shelled it until it was reduced to rubble.

Of course we all know what uncle scam thought of that.

Then some states, like my home state, have a problem in their State Constitutions. Below is from the Mississippi Constitution.

"Sec. 7. The right to withdraw from the Federal Union on account of any real or supposed grievance, shall never be assumed by this state, nor shall any law be passed in derogation of the paramount allegiance of the citizens of this state to the government of the United States."

This would have to be removed to legally seceed.

The Ohio Constitution, Article I, Section 2 reads: 'All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their equal protection and benefit, and they have the right to alter, reform, or abolish the same, whenever they may deem it necessary; and no special privileges or immunities shall ever be granted, that may not be altered, revoked, or repealed by the general assembly.'

Texas Constitution:

"Sec. 1. FREEDOM AND SOVEREIGNTY OF STATE. Texas is a free and independent State, subject only to the Constitution of the United States, and the maintenance of our free institutions and the perpetuity of the Union depend upon the preservation of the right of local self-government, unimpaired to all the States."

Virginia Constitution:

"Section 3. Government instituted for common benefit.

That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and forms of government, that is best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and, whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal."

I wonder about places like Lawrence KS. and Sedalia MO. That is all around Whiteman A.F.B. Home of the Minuteman Missle. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHaw!!!!!!

Not since 1995. All the missiles are in Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. Whiteman is the home base of the B2 bomber.

I have not been through there in a long time. I am a Missourian by birth, And the Ozarks are my favorite place.