My comm skills are probably 'bout on par with yours, and I have not seen the movie (and probably won't, at least 'til it hits TV), so I am just playing the devils advocate here.

Re the gun thing, you guys are right on. Why not pack all you can carry???

Re the "...military trained but can't figure out how to run some better armored vehicles that are around from the military...",
there are lots of military jobs that don't get you any closer to armored vehicles than a parade. Maybe he was a paper pusher???