[Dave S]

I agree that in conventional warfare, you're right--a militia generally won't hold up against a regular army. However, as far as loosely trained militias having success against a regular army, how's the fighting in Iraq going?

How do you think the overweight, pretend soldiers of the various "militas" in this country would stack up with the average Al Qaeda trained fighter?

[dcwusmc]

I suspect that, if pushed to that limit, a lot of veterans and miltary retirees would fare just fine. We don't tend to be too fazed under fire and we do have fire discipline. I do, however, suspect that your average gungrabber (you know, people not too dissimilar to you) would wet his or her Depends and run away crying for mommy.

[Publius Valerius]

How do you think the overweight, pretend soldiers of the various "militas" in this country would stack up with the average Al Qaeda trained fighter?

How do you think a bunch of rag-tag farmers would stack up against the finest professional soldiers in the world?

I wouldn't think very well, myself--but it seemed to work out pretty well for the American colonies against Great Britain, didn't it?

The great thing about guns is that they are wonderfully meritocratic, Dave.