This is *not* "the militia thing" -- the idea is that "the militia" is every citizen, and unless/until the government wages war on "every citizen" the notion of a militia should keep the government in check. It is *specifically not* an actual physical threat, which as you pointed out earlier, is difficult to support both ideologically and tactically.
The slow erosion of even the _possibility_ of maintaining this implicit check by the gradual disarmament of the citizenry is "the militia thing" and is what turns support of a simple idea into fanaticism at the fringes.
It's no wonder the "gun thing gets" to you; you don't understand it.
# "it's the militia thing, stupid"
/jordan