Lee Miracle, commander of the Southern Michigan Volunteer Militia, is a complicated man. A veteran, libertarian, atheist and poet who doesn’t believe that government should prohibit gay marriage, he owns more than 20 guns and each of his seven-year-old daughters have their own “cute” firearm. In an interview conducted by Zachary Crockett of Priceonomics, Miracle comes across as basically reasonable, but if so he must be habitually naive about the kind of fringy people he’s associating with. An excerpt:

Question:

Exactly what kind of situations are you preparing for with your weaponry training?

Lee Miracle:

Okay. If I’m standing next to someone and he’s opening fire on a school playground, its my job to shoot. The first one on the scene has to step up.

If there’s someone in a shopping mall or a movie theatre or wherever, and they’re doing something bad — whether you’re in a militia or not, every citizen should engage and destroy the threat!

Question:

Have you ever had to do anything like that?

Lee Miracle:

No…so far, no. And I’m very grateful for that. My hope is that we will never have to use them.

We don’t wake up and hope that we have to pull out our revolvers. There’s a misconception that were champing at the bit to shoot something. Listen: if I woke up tomorrow and there was no terrorism in the world — that’s what I want. But the reality is there is bad stuff going on, there are criminals in our society — and you don’t deter that by being disarmed.

Question:

How many guns do you currently keep in your household?

Lee Miracle:

I’d have to check. At least 20-something.

Question:

Can you tell me a bit about how you ensure gun safety with your children in the house?

Lee Miracle:

I’ve got five kids still living at home. Every one of my kids except one has his or her own firearm; only one of my daughters, who has since moved out, doesn’t have one — and that’s just because she isn’t really into guns.

The little girls, who are seven each, each got their little single shot .22 ‘crickets’ — they’re very cute guns. We go to the range, and they know the rules of gun safety, they understand the seriousness. I’ll give them random tests — like say, ‘Clear this chamber for me’ — and they know what to do. I also train them. I’ll say, ‘Look what this shotgun does to a pumpkin or a 2×4; now imagine what it would do to a person’s head!’ They understand the seriousness.

Another one of my sons, who’s 16 years old, doesn’t have a gun right now because of his grades. His grades were poor, and I told him, ‘When you get your grades up, we’ll talk about it. In this household, you’re not armed: you need to reflect on that.’•