The same FedGov that has dragged its feet all the way to a handful of pilots being armed, and prefers the solution of using F-16s to shoot down hijacked jets, will NEVER let armed civilians guard the powerlines.
They would rather see a 48 state blackout than armed civilians guarding our infrastructure.
It's all about control. The F-16 pilot is under direct National Command Authority control, the armed pilot is not.