It should not be presumed that militia must be "organized". The distinction between "organized" and "unorganized" seems to have been an early 20th century innovation that was unknown to the Founders. As far as they were concerned, everyone was supposed to be organized at some level. Therefore, anyone who might be called upon to serve, which is, essentially, everyone, and their equipment, which could include anything that might support militia, which is, essentially, everything, could be subject to some level and kind of inventorying, depending on the level, risk, and nature of anticipated threats, which ultimately define the authority for everything connected to militia.
The subset of the general population that we may call the mandatory militia, those subject to legal penalties for failing to respond to a call-up, especially of a routine character, such as for training, may, of course, also be subject to a higher level of regulation, since they form the core of militia preparation. But if the threat is severe enough, those subject to call-up can be instantly expanded to everyone: men, women, children, the aged, the infirm, foreigners, even visiting space aliens. Now, we wouldn't ordinarily expect to include whatever tools or equipment any of those might have, especially under quiet circumstances when the threat level is low, but the emergence of things like weapons of mass destruction being wielded against any random point at any random time by enemies unknown and perhaps unknowable, and evidence that the threat is vast and imminent, can change everything. If those space aliens have anything we might need, we can at least ask them what they've got, even if we can't fine them or put them in jail if they don't answer.
Pardon me for being a bit facetious, but the point is that the threat defines what may be required for militia. And the irony is that the present threat requires us to do exactly the opposite of what the gun controllers seek. Instead of disarming the population, we need to be arming, training, and organizing almost everyone. And I do mean almost everyone. From early infancy. Our survival as a civilization may depend on it.
But the organization, direction and much of the initiative can't come just from above. Hierarchical command management barely works for armies. From my military experience, everything depends on a high level of individual competence and local initiative. Most of went right in my unit didn't come from higher command. We developed it ourselves. And what we absolutely don't need is to turn militia into a nationwide network of busybodies and informers. Militia is a difficult concept, but essential for republican governance, and ultimately perhaps, for civilization itself.
Henry Schaffer wrote:
A point about registering firearms which are kept for organized militia purposes. Someone said that a justification would be that the gov't needs to know and track this in order to know who to call up and what supplies will be needed.
There is some logic to this - but, even so, it would seem to be limited to those who are subject to being called up, and then to the firearm(s) that would be taken to militia duty. Many gun owners own a variety of firearms, often including some that aren't really suitable for militia service (e.g. muzzle loaders, and other single shot firearms.)
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