Quote:
Originally Posted by malloyd
One detail that may escape American audiences is that carrying a weapon is almost never a *right*. Pretty much every prince ever would claim the authority to regulate or forbid weapons to anybody if they wanted to, and few political theorists would disagree. If they are not doing so, it's a liberty they are allowing, not a right inherent to you.
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Of course, as Agemegos noted, it may also be a duty - at least to have arms, if not to carry them about with you. And in a medieval setting you are most unlikely to have one law universally applied - for example, you may be permitted to travel armed on the King's Highway, but step off it onto the estates of the noble whose land borders it and you are engaged in armed trespass (also, if you are of too low status, or just unknown in the area and not obviously on legitimate business, you may be challenged as a bandit). Likewise, a resident of a city may be permitted to go armed, whereas a stranger may not, a freeman might be permitted (and even expected) to own weapons whilst a serf may be forbidden - but if that freeman takes his warbow into the royal forest, the foresters are liable to take him up as a poacher... the answer is likely to be "it's complicated, how immersive do you like your setting".