""I agree that the culture of Great Britain is different than the culture of the US. My simplistic historic view of why is that there was a need by monarchs to disarm the populace as a method of control.""

A false premise! The UK has never since the establishment of the "Constitutional Monarchy" had a King or Queen with the power to disarm any citizen.

UK citizens who chose to do so carried arms freely until the 1920s, when licensing was introduced. Even before this time the number of people with personal weapons, i.e. hand guns, was very small.

It had diminished gradually from the late Victorian era, as the police forces became more and more effective.

Somebody up thread pointed out that only 1% of the illegal arms in the UK had ever been legally owned, and seemed to be suggesting that therefore our gun laws were somehow deficient.

In fact it's a no brainer. If hardly anybody in the country owns a legal hand gun, there ain't many for the criminals to steal.

Increase the number of legal guns and the number stolen and used for crime will increase.

Don T.