"How do you account for the law regarding State and federal Militia Acts? There is no appeal to ignorance of the law; or so we have been told."
A principle is always at work whenever volunteers share the goal of mutual defense and that principle is called agreement. I cannot, for example, agree that every word spoken authoritatively is a law. A so called German once wrote orders to murder Jews after torture. An individual claiming to be a governor of Utah once wrote an order to kill all Mormons, claiming that said order was the law.
The common denominator shared by all those who share the goal of deception is a ready supply of gullible people.
Why call an Act an Act?
Which Act is worthy of the additional authority imposed within the idea of law?
Here is a very good example of what you may be offering in your viewpoint:
http://ismor.com/cornwallis/cornwallis_2001/CVI_2001_Visco.pdf
Individuals belong within groups because individuals share specific thoughts that drive specific actions: shared interests, shared goals, cooperation among those who agree, and then actions that are willful, and the intention is agreed upon, shared, and cooperative effort is acted out in order to reach for and achieve the mutually agreed upon goals.
Someone, and then some group, orders everyone to arm themselves or suffer punishment for failing to obey the order to arm themselves. That is an example of one of the State Militia Acts.
If you are speaking about the federal acts, then there are two periods in which there are two opposing examples of federation.
Between 1776 and 1789 the original federation existed as a documented fact.
From 1789 until today there has been a change of ownership, a change of character, as the original voluntary federation idea was covered up and replaced by an involuntary National idea hidden behind the false federal label.
Acts imposed upon people by people after 1789 are not the same as Acts imposed upon people by people between 1776 and 1789 under the label of a federal act.
Those who were behind the Bill of Rights, a federal statute (bill which amends the statute known as the constitution of 1787), were against the statute known as the constitution of 1787, those people included George Mason and Patrick Henry; both vocal opponents of the Nationalization (then called Consolidation) of the voluntary federation idea that worked between 1776 and 1787.
"How do you account for the law regarding State and federal Militia Acts?"
Some people in some states were very strict concerning the enforcement of participation in defense against active destruction of people and property currently perpetrated by people called Red Coats between 1776 and the surrender of the British. A good study of this strict enforcement of "friend or foe" involved those who were conscientious objectors of the day, including those who were calling themselves Quakers.
Here is an example of rule of law in 1778, during those troubled times:
RESPUBLICA v. CARLISLE 1 U.S. 35 1778 Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center
If there is a dispute concerning who is the authority in any case, friend or foe, the idea was shared that due process, trial by the whole country, was the palladium of liberty being defended by volunteers who were rebelling against blind obedience to criminal orders without question.
Many defenders effectively defended against claims that everyone must arm themselves and fight the invaders. What happened when a Quaker family faced an angry mob of false patriots demanding conscripts, and then the same Quakers faced an angry mob of Red Coats demanding conscripts? If the Quaker family effectively defended themselves against both angry mobs peacefully, then is that something worth knowing? If the Quaker family lost family members to both angry mobs, failing to defend family members effectively, is that something worth knowing?
Federation was known as a voluntary association. Those who claim the authority to enslave other people confess something worth knowing in my view.
Knowledge is the first defensive weapon, and knowing when arms are needed in defense because failing to be armed will certainly result in torture and murder is a shared idea shared by those who, like George Mason, and like Patrick Henry, were for Amending the faulty Constitution of 1787, because the Constitution of 1787 took away too much power from the people, and that begs the question as to who took that power then, and who abuses that power now.