We're allowed hunting rifles here for sport and pest control. The difference is this...
" Gun ownership is a privilege, not a right. Firearms control in the UK is among the toughest in the world, and as a result firearms offences continue to make up a small proportion (less than 0.2%) of recorded crime "
Handguns? Banned. Semi-automatic weapons? Permissible in some circumstances. Sniper rifles? Yup. Shotguns? Yes, if they hold 3 cartridges maximum.
Do people feel the need to walk round Tesco with half an armoury when buying soup and toothpaste? No. You'd have SCO19 breathing down your neck bloody fast trying that.
I've been alive 44 years. I have seen someone open carrying in a store once in 44 years. For the most part, people have guns here and the guns stay in their house, and in the last three decades, what used to be in unlocked cabinets and such is now in locked storage. When I had guns, they were all locked. I got them out to go to the range and brought them back and cleaned them, and then back they went.
If you are to carry somewhere here open and you go in a store and they ask you to leave, it's criminal trespass if you don't. Many of the stores have signs that say no weapons are allowed (that's not limited to firearms, but anything). When I owned guns, i maintained a carry permit. I can count on zero thumbs the number of times I carried anything, but it was advised to us with hunter's safety that it'd be wise to get a carry permit as going to and from the range in my state is legal for anyone. Stopping anywhere (For anything, even gas) is not legal with a handgun unless you have a carry permit. obviously, I no longer have a carry permit, either (they cost the princely sum of $4.50 a year here, which was more or less to maintain a database of the permit holders and to do a background check at renewal).
The fascination with this topic outside of the US is, quite frankly, dumb. It's based on skewed perception or just prissyness. The skewed perception part of it is if someone is concerned about the availability of firearms and they believe that their concern is solely safety based. There are ladies in my neighborhood (and probably guys, ladies tend to be more vocal) who believe that gun ownership is the number one threat to their safety, but they travel overseas, drive all over the place and drink. I don't really have an objection to people drinking, but the reality is if a cohort drinks, some will have an affinity for alcohol and eventually die.
A far bigger thing on my radar is having my kids learn to make good decisions from the start. Alcohol, opioids, benzodiazepenes. All of us here know someone who has had a run in (neighbor's daughter died from an overdose - once again, something that I can identify a person with, but not scary on the news like the gun stories). Overdose deaths from drugs here last year in combination with non-accident related alcohol deaths (so not even including the 10k drunk driving deaths) total over 100k per year. Those two alone are at least 16 or 17 times greater than the gun death exposure. You can just go down this list forever, but nobody is scared of it until after it happens. Stupidity.
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