No, it doesn't have to. But it does, at least according to Scalia. What did he say about machine guns again?
"JUSTICE SCALIA: Mr. Dellinger, let's come back to your description of the opinion below as allowing armor-piercing bullets and machine guns. I didn't read it that way. I thought the opinion below said it had to be the kind of weapon that was common for the people --"
"MR. DELLINGER: That is --"
"JUSTICE SCALIA: -- that is common for the people to have. And I don't know -- I don't know that a lot of people have machine guns or armor-piercing bullets. I think that's quite unusual. But having a pistol is not unusual."
"MR. DELLINGER: The number of machine guns, I believe, is in excess of a hundred thousand that are out there now, that are --"
"JUSTICE SCALIA: How many people in the country?"
"MR. DELLINGER: Well, there are 300 million, but whether that's common or not, but the --"
"JUSTICE SCALIA: I don't think it's common."
"MR. DELLINGER: But it's the -- the court protects weapons suitable for military use that are lineal descendants. I don't know why ...."
Depite the number of machine guns, assault rifles, and full auto weapons in the hands of the military and police forces, Scalia doesn't think they're common. Put it this way, when figuring the over-under on a future court case involving a machine gun, don't count on his vote.
Buy hey! Look on the bright side! Scalia will likely vote for an individual right (with restrictions, of course). And when the tyrannical federal government rises, we'll all be ready for them with our "common use" pistols and single-shot 22's. What you call "a militia".
That tyrannical federal government has already risen. Nothing that the Heller Court is going to decide will make the situation worse. As you have so helpfully pointed out in the past, most federal court districts have ruled that there is no individual right to keep and bear arms. Attempts to make the situation better are incapable of making them worse given how the majority of lower courts have ruled.
Fortunately, the lower courts have over-stepped considerably and read into Miller things which are not there and which the present Court is unlikely to let stand. The understanding of Miller that is "in common use" is flawed by the collective-rights nonsense and there is every reason to believe that the Heller Court will set this right.
Get the landmark ruling, then chip away at the restrictions. When crime does not go up, people will be less concerned about the SCOTUS striking down these laws.
First things first though. If Scalia had said he read the lower court's opinion as allowing rocket launchers and machine guns then Breyer and the other lefties would have seized the moment to scare Kennedy. You don't want him to get spooked and back down.
No, by your prolifically insisted definition, "we" won't be ready because "we" aren't the select few that the tyrranical federal government permitted into the militia and thus could be prohibited from owning anything.