Yes, colonial British subjects had restrictions on ownership of weapons. They had soldiers quartered in their homes. They had taxes without representation. They had their right of free assembly restricted. They had their religious freedoms restricted.

The founding fathers wrote the bill of rights specifically to cover these things that British rule had done to the people who left Britain.

Some colonial Americans had armed ships. "No standing army" is hard to overemphasize; the defenders of the country were merely good citizens rather than a small class of professional full-time soldiers.