The notion that the military is subordinate to The Will of The People is interesting, or maybe I misinterpreted you.

I wish the gunshots came after formal declarations of war by Congress, something that hasn't happened since before the current and previous Presidents were born.

Also wish Congress wasn't a clown car perpetually headed off a cliff.

But the Department of War became the Department of Defense, so I guess all these gun shots aren't war anymore.

And as for the gun analogy, I'm reminded of the "production for use"[0] defense from Howard Hawks's His Girl Friday:

"And so, into this little tortured mind came the idea that that gun had been produced for use. And use it he did."

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[0] https://subtextpodcast.com/his-girl-friday/

Congress being a clown car is problem #1 for sure. Though congress unfortunately is at least somewhat or perhaps majorly representative of the will of the people so the problem is mostly that we're idiots.

I hear you on the need for a declaration of war, but as I'm sure you realize, it's not practical for most of the modern conflicts we find ourselves in. Congress has also explicitly given the Executive the power to conduct limited engagements because conflict develops much more quickly in many cases than Congress can act and we need to be able to respond quickly.

Now of course one might argue something such as that we shouldn't be in areas or be doing things that could instantly cause a conflict and of course that sounds great to me, but then after a second glance you realize that, well, for example Americans must get oil and gas from the Middle East and so here we are without a formal declaration of war protecting shipping lanes.