Privately owned guns were common as ******* dirt. I have a book on JUST the gun smiths of Rhode Island. Do you understand what that means? It is an entire book listing all of the gunsmiths in Rhode Island. JUST Rhode Island. An entire book.
Okay... so what? Pre-industrial, how many guns do you think a gun smith could make? Keeping in mind, this is before modern manufacturing techniques of interchangeable parts.
The reality- guns were expensive to own, took long to make and had very little practical use for most people of the era. (only fired one shot at a time, limited range, took a long time to reload, etc. )
The only reason why "well-regulated" militias were effective was because they used volley fire... because a 1770's era musket was really not terribly accurate.
The continental army only averaged 40,000 men at any given time. Total battle deaths were only 15,000 on both sides for a war that dragged on for nearly a decade. The only reason why there was a fighting chance is that the French dumped thousands of guns on the conflict to **** with the British, and they ended up bankrupting themselves in the process.
Tell that to the Founders.
I really don't care what the Founding Slave Rapists thought was a good idea.
I live in the here and now. In the here and now, when a Nicolas Cruz or a Adam Lanza can get his hands on a military grade weapon and kill dozens of people, because you guys have misinterpreted the Militia Amendment as a right to gun ownership, we really do have a problem.
And for the record the clown who's "study" you take that little lie from was drummed out of academia for academic fraud and is the last time I heard a barrista in a coffee shop.
Funny how the anti-academic right clings to it when they dis a guy they don't like.
Where's the study proving there were a lot of guns?