Visit England some time. The UK doesn't even routinely let the police handle guns, not even pistols.

Unfortunately this is no longer true. In the wake of recent islamist attacks, it is now routine to seen armed police patrolling around cities.

Do you think that will still be the case in the coming months?

Honest question.

Guns are extremely unpopular in the UK, so unless something insane happens like UKIP winning outright, I expect most police will remain unarmed.

In fact, even if UKIP did win outright, I doubt there are enough qualified instructors to train a significant number of police with firearms in just a few months. I think there are only about 1000 officers in the UK with firearms training at the moment.

To be clear, I was talking about culture festivals (as an example of a public gathering). Not just any random day in the city.

I would still be surprised, but I'll concede that is far more likely that what I thought was meant.

The parent's answer will probably depend heavily on the results of the snap general UK election. Polls close today at 10PM GMT.

Well, japanese peasants and samurai did have a history of being disarmed regularly by ruling shogun, whereas US is quite proud of their history of possessing arms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_hunt