this post was submitted on 24 May 2026
952 points (98.2% liked)
People Twitter
9989 readers
1649 users here now
People tweeting stuff. We allow tweets from anyone.
RULES:
- Mark NSFW content.
- No doxxing people.
- Must be a pic of the tweet or similar. No direct links to the tweet.
- No bullying or international politcs
- Be excellent to each other.
- Provide an archived link to the tweet (or similar) being shown if it's a major figure or a politician. Archive.is the best way.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The majority of the UK had guns readily available up until the great war. Then the population was disarmed, the homicide rate was lower than it is today in the UK... Sherlock was written for those times, and guns were not unusual.
This particular series takes the characters and puts them in present day London, what was normal in the 19th century doesn't apply for the character in the example
[sic] there were no firearm restrictions in effect, but less than 1% of the population had firearms. The Firearms act of 1920 disarmed this percentage over fears of surges in crime, as well as worries that the working class would get too unruly
I don't know what % of the population had firearms but they were as you said no restrictions...and let's be honest...it wasn't about crime, it was about disarming the working class.
Sherlock is also armed in several of the original sir. Arthur Conan Doyle stories. Iirc most the time he borrows a revolver from Scotland Yard.
I have no knowledge about the UK, but I can say that was the case for Germany. Gun control in the modern sense only began after WW1 when large numbers of weapons fell into civilian hands.
In the 19th century, shooting practice was mandatory as part of the military system; reserve and conscription. Kinda like how it still survives in Switzerland. But as the UK rarely had a need for large land armies, the population was not militarized to such a degree.