This Painting...
"Pilgrims Going To Church" by George Henry Boughton
...adorned the walls of every classroom in the Boston Public School where I went to K through 4 back in the 1950's.
Citizens in Colonial America were REQUIRED BY LAW to bring their “firelocks” to church. After services they drilled and often had target practice on church grounds.
From the 1982 Senate Report on the RKBA, now out of print and highly suppressed. I have a paper copy from the US Government Printing house. Here is an on line copy.
https://guncite.com/journals/senrpt/senrpt.html
“In the colonies, availability of hunting and need for defense led to armament statues comparable to those of the early Saxon times. In 1623, Virginia forbade its colonists to travel unless they were “well armed”; in 1631 it required colonists to engage in target practice on Sunday and to “bring their peeces to church.”[26] In 1658 it required every householder to have a functioning firearm within his house and in 1673 its laws provided that a citizen who claimed he was too poor to purchase a firearm would have one purchased for him by the government, which would then require him to pay a reasonable price when able to do so.[27] In Massachusetts, the first session of the legislature ordered that not only freemen, but also indentured servants own firearms and in 1644 it imposed a stern 6 shilling fine upon any citizen who was not armed.[28](p.4)”