  :::How about the the people of Concord individually kept their private arms at home so as to be ready should the British raid the town, defending themselves from criminals, possible Indian raids, and for killing the ocassional wild turkey they ran across.  :::I can just see it, Isaac sees a wild turkey in his back pasture, runs over to armory, yells to guard  Hi Nat! I need to get my musket to get that wild turkey I just say in my back yard. Nat replies: Sorry! You need to file the withdrawal form in triplicate fist, file one set with the commander office, keep one for your records and one gets filed here for our records. We wouldn't want those muskets taken out and resold on the black market. Isaac quickly fills out forms (being one of those lucky enough to have enough schooling to be able to read and write), guard gets his musket, and then Isaac runs to his back pasture to find that the turkey has LONG SINCE departed.  :::Just out of curiosity, has ANY historian found ANY musket withdrawal slips at any evolutionary was armory in ANY of the 13 original colonies? I haven't heard of any such find.  