Jcllings:
This section of the law is certainly antiquated. Militia is generally defined as a force raised from a civilian population in the time of emergency. Its important to separate federal organized militia (National Guard) from state organized militia (State Guard) from unorganized militia (civilian population). In modern times, there are no unorganized standing militias in the United States. There are, of course, civilian organizations dedicated to emergency response that may claim to be militias, but they are not regulated by age limits set in the United States Code. So, it is a kind of misnomer to say that you are denied your right to be a militiaman simply for your age. In the modern era, the age restrictions are for initial enlistment into the armed forces—the US National Guard. Please see 32 USC 313. That section refers to people with prior military experience and if allows reenlistment for those up to 64 years of age. But, the entire point of an unorganized militia is that it is a group of citizens, not controlled by the government, dispatched in an emergency. You are probably right that you and your rifle would not be turned away in the case of an emergency.
