Actually, up until the early 20th century guns were very common in the UK (and the crime rate was very low). The English Bill of Rights included a right to keep and bear arms (for Protestants at least), but that has been legislated away. Look at the Sherlock Holmes stories (written and set around the late 1890's/early 1900's) for an example of how accepted firearm ownership and concealed carry once were in the UK.grad_Student wrote:I find it odd that the UK is very anti-gun in general but I guess when it's a monarchy, having an armed populous wasn't very beneficial to the king.
That started changing in the 1920's due to fears about Communism. Gun registration was first, then a ban on concealed carry, then a decision that self-defense was no longer sufficient reason for a gun licence (1940's or 50's), then, following isolated shooting rampages, bans and confiscation of semiautomatic rifles (1980's) and handguns (1990's). Now all that the British people can own legally are manual-action rifles and break-open and pump (limited to 3 rounds) shotguns. Of course, that doesn't stop criminals; there may be upwards of 2 million unregistered guns in the UK (see pp 10-11 of this article).
