You have to remember the times they went through. They'd just fought a war against a repressive government that had wanted to disarm them and was using an army to do it. They'd jumped on the idea of a citizen army to protect the home front with no intentions of going out to fight battles against other countries (we already had more property than we knew what to do with). Even the Navy was an afterthought that was more to protect the merchant fleet that to take on other countries.
And there's certainly a lot there - for another, they were mostly Brits, and they had a strong sentiment about not NEEDING a standing army, because having the most powerful navy in the world and living on a large island kind of made it unnecessary.
There's also the fact that "standing armies" is what caused events like the Boston Massacre - and other ill treatments of the colonists. They sure didn't want governors to continue to have ARMIES they could muster on a whim.
And of course - they didn't have law enforcement worth a damn. You protected your home with a gun. Some of the state constitutions and early writings spelled it out - a man has the right to bear arms to protect his family and his property. I've always been a big fan of the expression "when seconds count - the police are only minutes away".
Despite the stories of lawlessnees in the West, violent crime was NOT commonplace in the U.S., at least, not after our wars with the British. And until the late 50's it had been dropping, until it zoomed until the early 90s.
So the idea that they weren't supposed to have arms on par with the army is false because they were supposed to be the army. It's probably true that they didn't have a clue what was coming down the pike as far as weaponry was concerned, but that's the way it went and to change it will require a constitutional amendment.
Well exactly. We did get weapons from the French, and we stole a lot of weapons - but we had three sources of cannonry and big weapons - the French - the British (when we won battles - we also LOST them when we lost battles) - and private ironworks, sometimes paid by the Continental Congress, but sometimes from wealthy Americans. Our "navy" was originally, largely, converted merchant ships - until we started capturing vessels.
The idea that ordinary Americans weren't supposed to have weapons of war flies in the face of the way it happened - THAT is how we were able to fight.