Note: Not a gun/politics argument.
When did the US move away from militias (e.g. “hey there’s some trouble; everyone get your guns and meet over here!”) and more towards police/national guard/etc?
Watching the Ukraine conflict got me thinking, as there are pockets of civilians taking up arms and defending small towns/villages.
It seems like the US generally lacks the close-knit communities necessary to make this work.
The militias were the only resident military force during the colonial period, as there was no standing professional army in any of the colonies. They were under the authority of the royal governors. In theory, all free able-bodied men had to equip themselves, and the governor and the local governments would also usually contract for and buy arms for the use of the militia. But arms, equipment and training for the militia often could be neglected when there was no threat of war. Militiamen also were drawn from the working population, had day jobs. As a result, not only were militiamen likely to be unequal to opposing a professional army, they also were likely to want to serve briefly, be wanting to go home to plant the crops or harvest them.
These shortcomings of the militia system were revealed by the French and Indian War, where not only were the militias themselves badly supported and supplied, but the governors and the colonial legislatures were divided over war aims, strategy, etc. Eventually it was a professional army, imported from England, that would actually win the War in 1759.
With all their limitations, militias were important to the success of Washington in War of American Independence. The French and Indian War militias provided valuable training for him, and he'd use his experience of the earlier War again in 1775 to keep a somewhat ragged Continental Army in the field and deal effectively with the Continental Congress. And despite the creation of a standing national army, after 1789, militias would still be a standard institution in most states through the 19th c. In times of peace, they might be lampooned, but in the Civil War the states were asked to raise a quota of volunteer militias, which were then integrated into regular army command as state regiments. Most of the US army in the Civil War was formed this way.
The big change from the militia system happened at the end of the 19th c. with the Spanish-American War. The War itself was a comedy of errors for the regular military, but the state units were even more farcical. Poorly equipped ( sometimes with single-shot, black-powder Trapdoor Springfield rifles), state units often managed to get themselves to Florida only to discover the Navy had no inclination to give them a ride to Cuba. Sweltering in heavy wool uniforms in tent camps for weeks or months killed and sickened many, and the ones who got to Cuba found their ancient equipment greatly out-classed by Spanish troops with new Mauser rifles.
After the war had revealed many problems there was a great push for change. For the militias that resulted in the 1903 Militia Act, which totally reformed the militia system, making it into what is now the National Guard. National Guard troops were given the same training and used the same up-to-date equipment as regular military, and though they were still based in individual states and usually under the immediate control of the state governments, they were ultimately under the control of the Federal government.