I can't cite a reference, but many pieces of fiction from the day and historical accounts seem to involve people with ready access to firearms. Google produced

I can't cite a reference, but many pieces of fiction from the day and historical accounts seem to involve people with ready access to firearms. Google produced this which seems to support what I said above (aka British people seemed to have common access to firearms until ~ WW2 times): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearms_policy_in_the_United_Kingdom#Firearms_legislation_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearms_policy_in_the_United_...