We know the militia had cannon during the Revolutionary War. I have been told that Civil War veterans often were allowed to take small afield pieces home after the war. I am not an expert on these items of military history, however, so it might be worth verifying sometime. I know that even today people do own tanks, and I saw an article about one such fellow in the Washington Times a few months back. He drives it around town, literally parks it in his back yard.
People own fully automatic firearms of all stripes.
Small arms, including pistols, rifles, shoulder fired missiles and mortars, are powerful weapons, even against highly mechanized world powers. NATO is not afraid of an air force or navy, but is afraid of infantry. I suspect that the Arab nations are quite hesitant to invade Israel with its armed citizenry. Thus it is entirely reasonable to say that civilians should be able to own and practice with small arms of all these types. Peaceable ownership and use of small arms, however, should be permitted as a general rule.