You know, we do have a militia, and we don't do anything with it

[Recursion]

All able-bodied males between 17 and 45 are in the militia (I'd expand that to include women). Why don't we have, say, quarterly "mandatory" drills ("mandatory" but there's no penalty if you don't show up, other than not getting paid) organized at the neighborhood level where you do things like disaster preparedness ("here's where people should go when the hurricane hits" or "let's set up a neighborhood call tree for emergencies" or whatever) or safety briefs or (God forbid) just actually meeting your neighbors. Or for that matter they could clean up litter some weekends.

The neighborhoods should elect their own officers, and there could be city-wide military, Red Cross, and law enforcement liaisons who could get in touch with those officers the next time there's a hurricane or earthquake or emergency or something. People who show up get paid like a Private in the reserves (I think it's about $180 for the weekend -- maybe the officers get paid more since they presumably would have to do a lot of organization). Nothing crazy or hardcore, and obviously it would mostly be a big joke, but it would at least do something to start the mindset that we can take responsibility for our safety and security and each other. Rather than what we saw in Katrina and Sandy where nobody knew what to do or where to go, at least some of the people would say "My job when the hurricane comes is to go check on this list of elderly people and get them to XYZ, where my other neighbor's job is to set up a first aid station".

And, as others suggested, participation could be (for the able-bodied, at least) a requirement for buying a firearm, or a concealed-carry license, or buying certain classes of firearms, or whatever Congress and the states are willing to make it. But I don't really think this needs to be about guns at all, but about getting people involved in their own safety.

[Hoyt]

1. Good. Let's start with all those over 45 years of age turning in their guns.

Let the whine begin.

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. We don't do anything with it because we have the National Guard and reserves.

"Militias" are an archaic relic from an era before the United States had a large professional standing army.

[Recursion]

3. There's nothing "archaic" about organized neighborhood-level emergency response

and coordination with law enforcement and disaster services.

I'm glad that warfare and law enforcement have become professionalized, but I don't think that means civilians need to have a "leave everything to them" mindset, particularly about disaster response.

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. We also have police departments, fire departments, EMTs, and again the aforementioned National Guard

and coordinated neighbourhood-level emergency response is best left to organisations with the training to implement it. (The only situation in which a "militia" would be at all useful in any kind of response scenario would be in suppressing riots, insurrection, looting and open civil war. If those become a serious problem enough to warrant invoking the "unorganised militia"? The country is past saving and the issue is probably moot anyway.)

[petronius]

4. It probably varies by state, but in CA the definition is

The militia of the State consists of all able-bodied male
citizens and all other able-bodied males who have declared their
intention to become citizens of the United States, who are between
the ages of eighteen and forty-five, and who are residents of the
State, and of such other persons as may upon their own application be
enlisted or commissioned therein pursuant to the provisions of this
division, subject, however, to such exemptions as now exist or may be
hereafter created by the laws of the United States or of this State.

So it sounds to me like men 18-45 are automatically counted (with some exemptions), but anyone else outside that category can be included at their own discretion...

[TheKentuckian]

6. I think we should and dismantle the Army for the most part and scale back the Marines.

The militia could only operate in the US and while active military could operate in the US, they would be restricted from be armed or having live munitions while on duty outside a base or a training reserve.

The Air Force and the Navy would remain standing/professional as such missions dictate. The Reserves would be shut down. Special forces might even expand somewhat.

We would maintain a tremendous ability to project power around the globe, provide security for commerce and travel, and special operations as well as rescue but have no plausible capability of occupation, anywhere.

I don't agree with the contention that service is required to keep and bear arms, that is a right conveyed by citizenship but then militia participation would be a responsibility of citizenship (and it is now, we just have a society wide /ignore one it), if you are a conscientious objector then logically you would waive your right to keep and bear arms but you still would be obligated to muster and serve in a support role only as opposed to also being prepped for combat capability.