Militia should have equipment approriate to the locale.
Klamath should have Trapper Militia and some Tribals.
Den should have druggie rabble and random travelers/scum plus a few Slaver types.
Modoc should have farmers and some random travelers.
Redding should have miners/Athabasca Dick sorts of guys
Gecko should have various ghouls.
Broken Hills should have a mix, plus special behavior rules. (Since in Canon, BH is at least sort of guarded: they have PATROLS around BH WM area.)
It should be up to the TC gang to provide armor, ammo, and weapons beyond whatever they start with.
And it should be lootable.
Wanna give everyone a minigun? Go ahead, but they may lack the skill and you can lose it.
The Den rabble should maybe come with Jinxed and a pile of Molotovs each. Local Flavour!
Plus maybe random drugs (and 0-2 Jet, which they may use)