Lil Wayne is being dragged to court a former bodyguard who is suing the rapper after telling cops Wayne allegedly brandished a gun and punched him in the ear.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Carlos Christian claims Weezy threatened to shoot him with a semiautomatic rifle ... a threat he says he took seriously considering Wayne once spent time in prison on weapons charges.

TMZ broke the story ... Christian called cops back in December 2021, claiming Lil Wayne pulled an assault rifle on him during a dispute at the rapper's Hidden Hills, CA home.

The bodyguard told police an altercation escalated to physical violence and Weezy ended up brandishing an AR-15, but sources close to Weezy denied the incident ever happened and claimed Wayne didn't even own a gun.

In the docs, the guard says he incurred medical expenses, lost wages, and suffered emotional distress as a result of the alleged incident ... and he's going after Lil Wayne for compensatory and punitive damages.

We reached out to Wayne's camp ... so far no word back.