Tim
There are parts of biological research which can only be done by approved, credentialled researchers. Ditto for weapons work of various kinds.
Weapons? Real, live useful weapons, such as small arms? John Moses Browning, father of the gas powered automatic. Producer of the first gas operated belt fed machine gun. Was a citizen gunsmith, not a corporation. The M1911, the BAR, and by extention, the FN-FAL, the 30 and 50 cal crew served machine guns. This was just a guy. Then John Garand, father of the "best battle rifle in history" the M1 Garand, the liberator of europe, from which the M14 was derived, Was a gunsmith in the employ of the department of the army. Garand declined a patent on his rifle, as he felt a patent would occlude the weapons manufacture. He was an open source kinda guy. Garand and Browning would be hunted animals under todays laws. No knocks against Eugene Stoner, the "father" of the M16, but his prototype was redesigned in committee by large corporations the likes of which brought us the M60 and other such jammomatic battle weapons. The US, by outlawing private weapons development that once allowed them to arm and deploy the most fearsome defensive force in history, has now turned to places like Belgium for the M249, and our good buddies H&K with thier 3rd Reich derived MP-series for our storm troopers.