The armed citizenry is certainly shabbier in the UK or Canada. Americans retain much more ready access to basic small arms -- in particular, semi-automatic rifles, banned in the UK in the 1980s -- and with some trouble can get machine guns, grenade launchers, rockets, mortars and many other squad and platoon level level weapons. There are at least 600000 machine guns in private hands in the USA today, registered under the terms of the NFA; and there are probably quite a few more, since many people become Class III dealers more or less just to have them.
Now, none of this is half as good as colonial times. In the United States, we didn't see much restriction of the arms market until the 1930s. Americans freely traded all classes and varieties of weaponry -- small arms, cannons, swords, &c -- during the colonial era and for more than a century after. Americans today have much less of the freedom promised by the 2nd Amendment than we used to; but we have retained much more of this particular right of the English than any other English speaking country.
Now, none of this is half as good as colonial times. In the United States, we didn't see much restriction of the arms market until the 1930s. Americans freely traded all classes and varieties of weaponry -- small arms, cannons, swords, &c -- during the colonial era and for more than a century after. Americans today have much less of the freedom promised by the 2nd Amendment than we used to; but we have retained much more of this particular right of the English than any other English speaking country.