Militias Normalized Guns in Renaissance Italy

Between the late 15th and mid-16th centuries Italian city‑states deliberately organized civic militias (e.g., Florence’s 1506 law) and stored handguns in municipal arsenals; regular target practice and official provisioning turned firearms from a devilish novelty into an accepted tool of urban defence. This shift shows how institutionalizing citizen defense can rapidly change the cultural legitimacy of a weapon. — Understanding how civic institutions reframed and diffused firearms in early modern Europe offers a concrete historical analogue for contemporary debates about civilian armament, militia politics, and how states can normalize or de‑legitimize dangerous technologies.