In 1920, the UK introduced gun control, not to stop crime but explicitly because the state was worried about the political implications of an armed population. That was the reason given by parliament at the time. In 1941, George Orwell warned: "That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there." Today, the UK is an authoritarian dystopia. Maybe the Americans had a point.