I used to wonder about that. People carried revolvers without a second thought in the Sherlock Holmes stories.
I used to wonder about that. People carried revolvers without a second thought in the Sherlock Holmes stories.
Now you know the “rest of the story”.
England was extraordinarily peaceful in 1900. Attempts at “gun control” were met with derision.
I think it passed, with little opposition, in 1920, for four reasons. Note that it was never put forward to any real public debate:
1. The flower of British manhood had been wasted in WWI. They simply were not there to vote or lobby.
2. What was left of the British upper classes were terrified by what they saw happening in Russia.
3. Fabian socialism, with its worship of the state, had displaced Christianity in many influential British circles.
4. The British had been so successful with capitalism, and their society was so peaceful, that many assumed that the need for arms for self defense was over.