Having mentioned the strict gun-control laws of the UK and our Second Amendment in the same breath, I want to bring that discussion full-circle. And there is a link between the two as the rights of gun owners in the UK and those in the US stem from the same source, the English Bill of Rights of 1689.
The bill contains the following language aimed at protecting Protestants from disarmament by the Crown:
That the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions and as allowed by Law.
The same principle is, of course, enshrined in the Second Amendment. The question, then, is how did gun owners in the UK and the US end up at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of the right to own firearms?
In the UK, efforts at regulating firearms began in the 19th century:
Early acts regulating the ownership of firearms were fairly limited. The Gun Licenses Act 1870 and the Pistols Act 1903 served primarily as Acts to generate revenue and required owners to hold a license from the post office. The system was described as generally ineffective. In 1920, the Firearms Act was passed, to stop firearms from being used by criminals and “other evilly disposed or irresponsible persons.” While one aim of the restriction was to curb violent crime, it was believed that other reasons included concerns over uprisings in Russia spilling over into Britain, particularly with the end of World War I and the return of thousands of troops trained in the use of firearms and an increase in the number of such weapons in circulation. This Act set out the basis for the licensing system of firearms that is still in operation today, providing the chief officer of police in the district the applicant lives with the authority to issue licenses. When enacting this legislation, the right to bear arms by citizens was considered; however, “this was countered by the argument that such redress was adequately obtainable through the ballot box and by access to Parliament and the courts.” Further controls were introduced in 1937 to allow conditions to be attached to certificates and to place more stringent restrictions on particularly dangerous weapons such as machine guns.
Here's where it gets interesting. Although the UK definitely had placed greater restrictions on gun ownership by the middle of the 20th century, the differences between the two countries regarding the right of an individual to own a firearm weren't anywhere near as dramatic as they are today. How, then, did we arrive at the current situation in which the UK has some of the toughest gun control laws in the world and the US some of the most liberal?
The key is the public and political reaction to the mass shooting incidents that occurred in each country. In the interest of brevity, I'm not going to list each of the individual incidents that occurred in the UK or the further tightening of gun ownership restrictions that followed.
As an example, however, the shootings that occurred in a Dunblane, Scotland elementary in 1996 resulted in
overwhelming public opinion that firearms should be banned from use by the civilian population. The law did not introduce a complete ban on firearms, but served to essentially prohibit the private ownership of handguns in Britain.
The bottom line is that public reaction to each incident was so powerful that Parliament felt compelled to act and when it did, the opposition that arose wasn't enough to stop the imposition of the new restrictions.
Although efforts to impose greater restrictions on gun ownership were also made in the US in reaction to similar incidents, the end results were nowhere near as profound as in the UK. IMHO, the difference between the end results in the UK and the US stems from the fact that the level of public support for increased gun restrictions in the US following each such incident was significantly less while the opposition to the proposed restrictions was far greater.
I'll stop here as exploring the reasons why public attitude in the UK and US differs so much could fill volumes. But before I go here are some interesting statistics:
US
Non-Military Firearms ~310,000,000
UK
Non-Military Firearms
Legal*
Rifles 475,000
Shotguns 1,300,000
Total 1,775,000
Illegal Firearms ~3,000,000
*Handguns are, for all intents and purposes, band in the UK. There are only 15,000 handguns covered by firearm certificates of the entire country.
There are approximately 850,000 registered gun owners in the UK.
Finally, in the "Taking Things To Extremes" Department:
The British Olympic shooting team has to practice in Switzerland because the individual members are not authorized to own handguns in the UK. If you think I'm making this up:
http://nytimes.com/2012/08/01/sports/olympics/handgun-ban-after-1996-mass-shooting-hampers-british-olympian-georgina-geikie.html