Gun and knife crime in the UK nowadays generally only gets reported when it involves innocent members of the public. Most people are oblivious to the full scale of it but the majority is confined to certain areas which are every bit as bad as anything the US has to offer. The strict controls we have on firearms licencing means there is a thriving market in illegal and unregistered weapons and they are fairly easy to acquire. I'm not sure whether that's a good or a bad thing, but it's certainly a mistake to underestimate the problem.