When it was written the both the government and the people had the same weapon — the musket -
Sort of.
The Red Coats had muskets which were great shooters at 50-75 yards.
The Colonists, however, were armed with the superior weapons AKA the Kentucky or Pennsylvania “Rifle”.
Those were valuable because they were cordless long distance drills designed to reach out and touch someone at 400-600 yards.
These rifles were effective not just because they were superior at range but, because the unusual tactic of the Day colonists employed , which was to find anyone in leadership of the opposition and pit .45-.50 caliber round through their head, to scare the bejesus out of them and disrupt their lines and ranks.
So, a citizen may indeed have a superior weapon and even today just might.
No, they were not.
The rebels had rather few rifles and riflemen.
Most people had muskets of various types of their own.
Worse, rebels were generally less equipped in general.
The other advantage of most muskets over any of the PA rifles was they carried bayonets. Not a single rifle was made to carry a bayonet. And that is what scared rebels the most - when the ammo was spent and it was down to hand-hand combat - with vicious bayonets (not the wimpy knives of the last 100 years).
And again, rebels had relatively few of these for themselves. Equipping the troops was a major and constant problem.
There are many myths about the AmRevWar and the guerilla/rifle thing is a major one.
Accuracy at longer distance is good.
Identifying your target at that range is VERY good!
So folks; keep your DRONE batteries charged and ready to spy upon your enemy!