All the way from dasmesh pita's time! It was anglos (I believe) who gradually put the notion of just having a blunt symbolic 'kirpaan' in our collective consciousness. It was basically a sly disarmament of the Khalsa.   Look at some of the hukamnamas posted in this thread to see dasmesh pita's instructions to his Sikhs regarding shastars and astars:   https://www.sikhawareness.com/topic/20490-following-all-rehatname/?page=2 

@dallysingh101Seems like Singhs used to rock guns more in the past than now. 

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