Many here are passingly familiar with the Militia Act of 1792, and even more familiar with how the 2A protects the right to keep and bear arms in order to have a well drilled, "regulated", militia, notwithstanding the recent excellent Supreme Court ruling that finally recognizes the right to self defense NOT being connected to militia service. Some good people have formed militias, or joined one, and some states have state guards that do somewhat the same job. Title 10 US Code still states that, IIRC, that the unorganized militia is all able bodied men between 18 and 45 not in uniform or in the Naval Miltia. (I wanna battleship for my Naval Militia!
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Please correct me if I am wrong, I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV.
Given that, many here have posted thier "militia" setups, myself included, rifle, ammo, gear, sidearm, etc, that we have been fortunate enough to be able to afford to put together, whether or not we would ever actually expect to use it. The liklihood is vanishingly small that the government, state or federal, would ever issue a general call up of the unorganized militia, and we simply have fun with our firearms, like I do at the range, or hunting or simply collecting. It's a fun hobby, and I like shooting my vz-58 and reloading for it quite a bit.
BUT, imagine the actual case of when a militia call up might happen in your area. Who would do it? Chances are that the infrastructure of the area/state would be smashed heavily, to prohibit movement of organized troops into the area from unaffected zones, or that a general rout of what organized troops that had been employed has taken place. Hollywood aside, and of course discarding the always popular, "what caliber for zombies", we move into, what happens if you DO get "the call", I am assuming by radio or word of mouth spread by survivors. This scenario leaves out the Katrina situations, as organized forces were able to move in relatively quickly from other locations to assist, instead of being heavily involved in other locations.
Why would I ask this? Well, as a minor and casual student of history, armies in rout tend to leave quite a bit of equipment behind, Bull Run and other famous disasters come to mind. I am an out of shape 40+ year old man with no formal training as an infantryman, (Navy training from 20+ years ago doesn't count for squat in this case, unless they need a deck chipped and painted.
), so if I actually show up to a place where troops are trying to rally whatever survivors, stragglers and walking wounded they have, given some lessons from history, what chance do you think there would be that the ranking military person, (Active or retired, to be fair), in the marshalling area would be attempting to take the good setups from those who lack the wherewithal to effectively use it on the battlefield, and re issue them to trained soldiers who may have lost thier weapons in the retreat/rout/destruction of the local armory? I would be loath to give up my favorite rifle, certainly, but I could concievably see the commander "requisitioning" it for someone who could actually use it in combat better than I could, and possibly leave me with my faithful beat up old Enfield No4Mk1* to guard an ad hoc ammo dump, hospital or supply center. I could see it even more likely in the case of those who use the AR rifles, as that would be more familiar to what former or active duty troops that may be where ever this attempted reorganization is taking place.
Leave out the many state laws that were passed after Katrinas aftermath, including my own state of Arizona, stating that firearms will not be taken in emergency situations, as I doubt many military commanders thrown in this situation would be too concerned with niceties, and far more concerned with fielding some sort of armed body of troops to face (X).
Lots of suppositions in a row, I know.
Thoughts, criticisms, comments?