The current debate about "assault weapons" is steeped in ignorance and treason.
When the Bill of Rights was written, people had muskets. That's a metal tube with a wood frame, and you poured a measure of black powder down the tube, then rammed a ball down the barrel on top of it. More or less that's the whole history of black powder arms. Smaller weapons like revolvers use less scoops of powder. Different caliber weapons take a different size ball, made of lead; you can melt the lead with a wood fire and cast the bullets in a handheld mold. You can do that on the battlefield, like the Revolutionaries on Bunker Hill.
So it don't matter if 10,000 guys show up with 12 different types of musket, you can make that work, because you custom load every musket.
Flash forward to the modern era. You don't use black powder. Cartridges use explosive threads or gel, and they're made at the factory, and the bullet is harder metal cast at the factory. Nobody in their right mind tries to handload outdoors. If 10,000 guys show up with 12 different types of rifle, you're screwed. You have to keep Ammo Type F with the troops with Rifle F.
For this reason, the US Govt decided that it would be great if all state militias used US military ammo. And the way to do that was to buy guns and ammo for them. And so the National Guard was born.
It doesn't obliterate the "militia" mentioned by the Founders, which did a lot more than just repel invasion or fight with the regular Army. That portion of the "militia" aimed to do that, is now federally organized.
