Things got a lot stricter due to:
* Fairly active insurgency in Ireland for much of the 20th century.
But particularly: * A school shooting, after which pistols were pretty much banned.
ah no I was referring to just after the first world war when the UK was far more like the USA was.
Post ww2 we always had strict rules but tragedy's make for bad laws passed in haste one down side to not having a written constitution
It was only Churchill going slightly paranoid and OTT post ww1 that lead to restrictions in the UK.