A short history of gun control in Britain.

 

Before WWI, Britain had a quarter of a million licensed firearms and no way to count the unlicensed ones. 

The Russian Revolution of 1917 certainly had an effect on gun control along with WWI. Britain was flooded with military service revolvers brought to Britain by demobilized British soldiers. The 1870 Gun License Act made it a requirement to obtain a gun license if you wanted to carry a weapon outside one's property. The license was obtained at the post office. It was designed to raise money and not to restrict gun ownership. The 1903 Pistols Act required a license for any gun with a barrel shorter than 9" and banned gun ownership to anyone drunk or insane. 

It seems quite extraordinary that even though there were eight attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria during her reign (1837-1901), gun laws in Britain were very lax. Today, Britain has some of the strictest and stringent gun laws in the world, and yet, you have more chance being killed crossing the road, than you have being shot dead. 

Although in Victorian Liberal England, you were free to starve to death, there seems to have been a more laissez-faire attitude to daily life in general, and British governments seemed to feel no need to have a drugs policy or felt it necessary to have gun control. Many Victorians carried some form of weapon for self-defence. 

I can remember seeing Wilkinson sword sticks on sale in second hand shops and many people carried knives, but they didn't go around stabbing one another. Today, many British people like to be under the thumb of authority and are quite happy for the state to meddle in various aspects of their lives.