COLONIAL WEAPONS

LOL-john, i had  similiar  thoughts about jon and traveller 2300 myself.

as for civilian weaponry on the colonial worlds, i  agree with your
reasoning, ie, weapons using cased ammo on frontier  worlds. robust,
reliable weaponry in the  form of  hunting rifles,  shotguns, and
handguns using cased ammo would certainly be more sensible than caseles,
binary propellant or gauss weaponry.

the LETHAL ai rifle concept is also immenantly reasonable for frontier
world  use. lol, and it has been around  since the 17th and 19th
centuries  as both a limited issue military and hunting weapon. 

and the anti-material / very big game rifle, in either turnbolt or
autoloading actions is also believable in the  hands of colonists than
need them or can afford them. again using reloadable cased ammo.

these are indeed the weapons and ammo types that most frontiersmen
(generic term!) would have  available  on a daily basis for self
defense, and hunting.  hence these would be the weapons readily
available to ad hoc colonial militias and rebels. 

any explosives available to the average frontiers  man would be of the
industrial types, or home  made.

 again i agree with you that the weaponry of the goverment controlled
organized  militias would  most likely be military surplus, but i think
richer colonial governments could  afford first rate weaponry.

militia weapons, with basic ammo loads will certainy be kept in armories
as they are now. additional ammo for these weapons  will be kept in ammo
dumps.
these  armories and  dumps would be  closely controlled by the colonial
or corporate government  world.

also, any military vehicles belonging to the militia would be kept at
armories.

militia aircraft would be kept at installations under the control of the
colonial government.

ad hoc militia or rebel vehicles and  aircraft would be rag tag civilian
models pressed into service.

also animals might be  used for  transport or draft teams.

a third colonial source of weaponry, vehicles, and  aircaft would be
the local law enforcement authorities, which  depending on  the actual
location of the lawmen, would be of an	urban, suburban, or rural type.
all of these law forces  would have available special weaponry that
belonged to the agency or the policemen themselves. 

in the games i have run (in the old reliable well developed TRAVELLER
UNIVERSE background-regardless of actual rules	used to play with
miniatures) the world tech level and law  level tend to provided a ready
idea as to the possible  weaponry in use by civilians, police, and
militias. 

very useful, those  world profiles! 

many is the game   that the rebels conducted operations to gain modern
military  weaponry, or the  heroic  colonists have fought with off
world  human or alien invaders, or  space pirate  raiders .

smuggling and  anti smuggling actions in space	and on	world too as the
colonial goverment tries to thwart the import of military weapons,
medical supplies and etc,   destined  for  rebel forces or the	export
of wotever to buy same	for the rebels.

we have always used merc organizations to bolster or train colonial
militias or regular armed  forces. 

rebels too.