OK, I'm confused. Second amendment is about a standing militia, right? Switzerland still has (I think, open to clarification) a standing militia, and all who are in it are required to have a functional accessible weapon, right? There is nothing that says this weapon, and its ammunition, can't be safely stored when not in use. So how did the American second amendment militia morph into self-defense in the home with freely accessible weapons and ammunition? To me they seem to be two separate issues.
They are not seperate issues, you are confused about what a militia actually is. The state militias are not armies, and they are not the national guard. The militia is the whole of the people, able to carry and use a firearm.
Well I was going by a dictionary definition of militia, which is
" n. An
army composed of
ordinary citizens rather than professional soldiers.
n. A
military force that is not part of a regular army and is
subject to call for service in an emergency.
n. The whole body of physically fit civilians eligible by law for
military service."
Historically in Canada our militia was mostly the first one, and next the second one, since British regiments serving in North America were encouraged to settle here once their tour of duty was over. This provided a base of experienced civilians. These days we have the Reserves*. You seem to be going mostly on the third one. Umm, none of these imply a role for self-defense in the home, they imply a role of national/regional defense or national/regional response to emergencies, as group efforts, based on the bolded words in the definitions. And I don't dispute that they imply that the citizens involved need to be able to use firearms, that is what armies do, whether they are professionals or civilians called up. And that is what Reserves do.
Of course if no-one knows who has guns, how can they be called for service in an emergency? Ask? "Hey, anyone who has a gun and knows what to do with it, we would like you to come join this civilian force"? This works in a small sparsely settled community (say either Canada or the US in the 1700's-1800's), but not so much now. In my area, sure, in Ottawa or Toronto or Vancouver, not so much.
However once you get into defying the legally elected government, owners of firearms don't seem to fit into any of these categories. So I am still confused.
I am also still confused about the role of handguns in US society, since they are relatively useless for civilian armies, and cause more than their fair share of problems.
*We do use our army and reserves for emergencies, this describes the Ice Storm of 1998: "
It was the largest deployment of troops ever to serve on Canadian soil in response to a natural disaster since the Manitoba floods in 1997, where 14,000 troops were deployed, and the largest operational deployment of Canadian military personnel since the Korean War.
CF members from about 200 units across Canada helped provincial and municipal workers clear roads, rescue people and animals trapped by storm wreckage, evacuate the sick, shelter and feed about 100,000 people frozen out of their homes, and ensure that farmers had the generators and fuel required to keep their operations going. CP-140 aircraft from 14 Wing Greenwood, NS conducted aerial imagery of the downed power lines in Quebec and Ontario. Military engineers and technicians worked around the clock with hydro and telephone crews to repair and replace downed transmission towers and utility poles. On January 13, at the request of the Province of Quebec, CF members assumed the powers of peace officers in the most devastated areas around Montreal.
At the height of this crisis, Operation Recuperation involved 15,784 deployed personnel (including 3,740 Reservists) from all three CF commands: 10,550 in Quebec, 4,850 in Ontario and 384 in New Brunswick. In addition, 6,200 CF members and DND employees working at their regular jobs provided the logistical support required to sustain the operation."