Mil vs. Civ shipping

To comment on Brian's thoughts:

It seems to me that a reasonable stance to consider what
 is or is not appropriate shipborne armament might be 
galactography. By that, I mean where the ship operates and
is licensed. 

For example, I have little doubt that if my free trader
was operating in the AE, being the politically colourful
place that it is, that I could well see slapping on some
B-2s for defence. Maybe some military sensor systems too.

Human space can loosely be broken down into a few geographic
zones. 

Core Worlds
Inner Colonies
Outer Colonies
Outposts, Small Colonies, Research Stations

Core Worlds and Inner Colonies:
Home of a powerful UN presence and powerful block naval 
presences. Probably not home to any pirates or privateers.
This environment is just too well policed (as it must be
since it is the cradle of human population and civilization)
by too many people. UN Policy beyond these precincts may well
be more honoured in the breech than in the observance, but 
in these areas you can certainly assume the UN has some high
standards and that most of the major power blocks also have
little interest in armed ships operating privately. Probably
a ferryboat or liner from Earth to Alpha Centauri probably
doesn't mount any weapons, or at most a PDS.

Outer Colonies:
Out here we have varying levels of UN and National bloc
presence. In the older more inward Outer Colonies, with 
higher populations, many of them house military bases of their
particular national block and will get semi-frequent UN patrol
visits. In these systems, armed ships would be uncommon, moreso
for those not operating with letters of marque (privateers).
Most ships in this area would not likely carry more than a
B-1. And even then mostly if they are neutral or allied with
their local bloc government. Now, the further out you go, 
the less true this becomes. In the outer Outer Colonies, 
you may well find ships with multiple B-1s for defence against
privateers or pirates. Or even other corporations! 

Outposts, Far Colonies:
Out here, its a free for all. Everyone operating in these areas
understands the risks out here. Fewer large lines will operate
out here due to 1) the economics of traffic and freight and
2) the risks (pirates, privateers, renegade governments, other
corporations) and the costs (insurance premiums, security costs).
So more small merchant groups and individual "free traders"
operate in these territories in smaller ships. Of course, as 
the risks are high, so are the armaments. Even small merchants
may pack a B-1 and as good of a sensor suite as they can afford
and some mid sized merchant ships may mount B-2s and perhaps
even a level-1 screen. It just plain isn't safe for unarmed
ships out here for long. Sometimes, if the piracy is bad enough
in this region or the Outer Colonies outer segments to annoy 
a corporation or power bloc, a Q ship may be deployed for a time.
Q ships can often be nasty surprises with upfitted drive segments,
submunitions packs, hidden SMRs, and even beams as large as B-3,
though a Q ship packing such a cannon would undoubtedly have it
installed single arc down the spine or broadside in a huge
mount. Pirates and Privateers in these regions will have ships
that basically run the gamut from armed merchantmen right up
to ships that rival frigates, destroyers, or even at the far
extremum maybe a light cruiser in size and armament, though
often times their logistics aren't as good (sometimes they
are if they are operating with a letter of marque) and so their
systems performance or availability may be sub standard. 

This perspective perhaps reflects the nature of man's deployment
in the GZGverse - dense towards the centre of the human empire,
with more focus in military and legal power, with that focus
dropping off the further towards the remote fringes one heads.

Just another 0.02 on the shape of the world, Justifier style.

Thomas.