In 1900 the British government trusted the people with firearms and to be their own guardians. Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, the Marquess of Salisbury said he would "laud the day when there was a rifle in every cottage in England". However in 1903 Britain passed its first ever "gun control" law, a minor one requiring a permit to carry a handgun and restricting the age of purchasers. It was the first toe over a slippery slope towards complete firearms prohibition.
In 1919 the British government, in fear of communist insurgents and domestic and foreign anarchists, passed its first sweeping anti-gun laws (under the smokescreen of crime control) even though gun related crime was almost non existent in the England of the day. British subjects could now only buy a firearm if they could show "a good reason" for having one and the firearm certificate system that we have today (implemented and abused by police) was introduced. The 1920 gun control act was the beginning of the end for private firearms ownership in England. So much for Robert Gascoyne-Cecil's remarks of "a rifle in every cottage in England" being a laudable goal.
....and some rin up hill and down dale, knapping the chucky stanes to pieces wi' hammers, like sae mony road-makers run daft - they say it is to see how the warld was made! Saint Ronan's Well - Sir Walter Scott, Bart. (1824)
While I'm sure it's true to a certain extent about insurgents and anarchists, I saw a letter in "American Rifleman" many years ago from a retired British Army Major. His comment was that the government knew many soldiers brought their weapons, especially Webley revolvers, home and the government was concerned that there would be a sort of uprising because of what virtually every British household suffered in WWI which was regarded to have been created by the aristocracy. Just goes to show, the governments want to disarm the people because of what nefarious deeds the governments had done or were planning.
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a Single Star.
