Gun ownership details in the UK.

[PeterN2]

The government have published details of how many firearms and shotguns are legally held in the UK. The numbers are very small from a population of around 70 million people. It reflects the hoops we have to jump through to own a firearm, so many people who would like to own a gun just don't bother. You have to be keen on shooting to go through the process. There is no such thing as casual firearms ownership in the UK.
Regards
Peter.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistic ... march-2026

[Niner]

The number of license holders is small as you say. What's interesting to me is that 69% of the license holders are age 50 and older. The younger generations don't seem to be interested enough to jump through all of the hoops of inspection and permission and taxation.

0.2% (893) were aged 17 years or under
11% (53,046) were aged 18 to 34
20% (94,525) were aged 35 to 49
35% (163,449) were aged 50 to 64
34% (158,872) were aged 65 and over

[PeterN2]

Shooting guns is a dying activity here in the UK. Not enough youngsters getting involved. A lot of other things they can do without the hassle of jumping through hoops just to shoot a few clay targets at the weekend, never mind trying to shoot targets with a rifle. I think we have had the best of it,
Regards
Peter.

[Niner]

Politicians in every country seem to think of their countrymen as immature and untrustworthy and in need of constant supervision and control like they were all ten year old children being supervised in grade school and particularly so when it comes to firearms. They want a nice docile controllable patriot citizenry. However, when the same politicians have a war they want fighting they are happy to instruct the drafted masses in how to kill and give them the best weapons creatable to protect the governments that distrust them.

As to Britain in particular: "Combined, British forces and civilians suffered approximately 1.4 million deaths across World War I and World War II". Wars are over so guns are too dangerous in civilian hands...citizens aren't naturally trustable apparently. Not quite the same story in the US in some states but if you move to a the most liberal ones they feel the same way as the authorities in Britain and are nearly as bad in some ways and worse in others, silencers for instance.