Is civilian/pleb/peasant/commoner weapons ownership of military grade weaponry (whatever the historical period) a...

Is civilian/pleb/peasant/commoner weapons ownership of military grade weaponry (whatever the historical period) a recent or old development along history? How at risk was an invading army in the ancient or medieval era to be under the subject of guerrila action by the civilians in the area?

>EOtech
have fun losing your point of aim after leaving it in the sun for a couple hours lmao

Civilians don't tend to own military grade weaponry today except in places where the word "civilian" is more or less meaningless.

Historically, households always had a sword or some sort of sharp choppystabby that could pass as one.

More often than not soldiers bought their own gear which they passed it down to their sons. Farmers and workers used or modified their tools to fight.

What constitutes a military weapon is a modern invention, anyone could be armed except in specific contexts.

Depends on the culture and period but generally the average peasant would not have access to military grade gear

Didn't most Roman soldiers keep their gear with them?

This.

Up until the napoleonic wars armies were made of professional mercenaries and not enlisted commoners.

Depends. In some places (like Japan) ownership of swords was illegal. In England a commoner could own a sword, but they probably wouldn't be allowed to carry it. Crossbows were banned in some places because they posed a serious threat to armored soldiers.

>guerrilla warfare
Not really the sort of thing that was easy for random civilians to pull off. Modern guerrilla warfare is really only possible because of firearms and explosives. It's now possible for one guy with a remote detonator or scoped rifle to pose a serious threat to a squad of soldiers. Before the advent of modern weaponry, the closest thing would have been a raiding party striking a camp or caravan.

Depends on the era.

Camillian and Polybian era Romans were citizen soldiers which meant they were automatically part of the legion by virtue of being Roman. They all bought their own gear, which is why they were organized by wealth or buying power only in the form of centurias(which also distributed their votes for the comices and assemblies). They ranged from piss poor beggars slinging rocks to rich elites working as heavily armed infantry and horsemen. They trained yearly and went back to normal life after a campaign. This system declined after horrible loses in battles like Cannae and Arausio made Rome lose it's most valuable units with no hope of recovering them soon. Generals began buying gear for poorer Romans so they could fill in and the distinction between centurias in the legion dissapeared.

The Marian Roman army was a volunteer army where the Roman state, emperor or general would equip the soldier which could be a non citizen like a peregrinii(foreigner immigrant), socii(ally, satrapy or client state) or a provincial(conquered state), but also a citizen. The soldier would serve 20 years non stop and be paid in salt only(the salary), but receive a plot of land and full Roman citizenship in the end.

They could own any sword they damn wanted as free citizens, and even form their own private army. Marcus Licinius Crasus raised a legion out of his own pocket to conquer Parthia before they BTFO of him in turn.

It's a literally age old practice. For large chunks of history, soldiers provided their own weaponry. More recently, you have soldiers taking home the rifle that they were issued, claiming it as part of their pay.

The question you should be asking is, when did society become so distrusting and feminized that it became taboo for a family to own the means to defend itself?

When the killing power of weapons started to massively outstrip the difficulty of their use or the ability to defend yourself from them

So with the crossbow. Gotcha.

I think the French Revolution got the Europeans into a tizzy the most.

>when did society become so distrusting and feminized that it became taboo for a family to own the means to defend itself?
In America?
The hippy generation.
Sure, there were always calls for gun control from people before, but baby boomers and their kids were the ones to start pushing for it hardcore.

Would that support the "soft times make soft people" theory?

Yes actually

And yet the modern french are as anti-gun as anyone else in europe. You are probably right though

I wouldn't say so, since the 70's and 80's were when crime rates and urban decay were at an all time high, and nuclear destruction (real or imagined) was just around the corner.

So let me get this straight. It's entirely okay for the weakest members of society to be at the mercy of the strongest with swords, but unacceptable for guns to create a level playing field?

That's what modern culture says, being self reliant is selfish, being prepared is paranoid, being armed is aggressive. They demand you trade everything to be in comunion with society, live off a system, coddled by the state, make little money and spend it all.

every mongol was a soldier.

The banning of weapons is a recent phenomenon.

Hell, "military grade" is a modern phenomenon. Before the rise of standing armies, and Military Industrial Complexes, any chump with money & organization could form his own armed force. Nowadays is not really possible outside of the goons with guns phase.

In China, if a military garrison did not live close to you -say, in the rural countryside,- then you were empowered to do your own policing. To this end, Chinese civilians owned weapons and formed posses to chase after criminals, with only a single government official monitoring the action to ensure legality of an action.

The Chinese did have bans on "military grade weapons" such as Crossbows, and later on, firearms, but the average Chinese chump did not care and legal officials looked the other way if it helps the law anyway. In addition, the Chinese peasant created "loophole weapons." When Muskets were banned to the Chinese, the peasants simply created one shot disposable firearms like this bamboo handcannon, usually fired before closing in. In operation, similar to a modern disposable anti-tank weapons like the LAW.