At one time, the British tried to ban the Brown Bess, in the colonies and were in the process of confiscation then the revolutions started.
The British "ban" on the Brown Bess wasn't a "you can't have any gun at all" kind of ban, it was a criminal offense for colonials to (unauthorized) possess a "Crown Musket".
The irony is that many of the arms in colonial possession had been provided by the Crown a decade earlier during the French & Indian war.
The revolution began with the "Shot heard round the world", April 19 1775, when colonists fought British troops who were marching to seize the militia armories at Lexington and Concord. (Paul Revere and a couple others riding to give the warning...The BRITISH are COMING!!, etc.)
It wasn't so much the guns at the armories that would have been the big loss to the militia, as most of them were in the hands & homes of the militia members. The reason the British had to be stopped (besides general principles) was the risk of them taking the stored powder.
Each minuteman had their weapon (rifle or musket or "fowling piece") a powder horn and shot, but without the bulk of their powder and shot which was stored at the armories, there could be no resupply once the minuteman used up his "basic load". This would prevent effective armed resistance pretty effectively.
A "well regulated" militia in the 1770s meant each militiaman had their basic arm, ammo, camping gear (bedroll, cookpot, etc) and knew the at least the rudiments of military drill. Standardization of arms and equipment (including uniforms) wasn't a priority, HAVING something that worked, was.
Arms were sort of standardized, in general, all were flintlocks, used the same powder, and fired lead balls, in a few different bore sizes, and there were molds available (another part of the "proper" militiaman's kit) for the arm used, be it a Brown Bess, (.72cal) or a French made Charleville (.69 cal) to cast bullets. The Achilles heel was the powder supply.
The British could, and did make the claim that the Brown Bess, being their standard arm was Crown property, and always would be, and a rebellious colonial in possession of one was thereby a criminal.
The powder the British were going to steal, on the other hand was the private property of the militias and that was almost as important a matter as the use of the powder itself.
Anti-gunners:
"You should only be able to own firearms that existed at the time the second amendment was written!"
And to that I say........
"Then turn in your smart phone, tablet, computer and every other modern device with which you exercise your First Amendment rights."
STOPS THEM every time!!!
Another point you can use, is ask them if the Mormon religion should not be recognized as a valid religion. After all, it didn't exist at the time the Bill of Rights was written...
oh, and add your regular "stupid" phone (cell or landline) to the list, along with ballpoint pens and other things that didn't exist in the 1780s...like..electrical devises of any kind...