I'm British (living now in Texas) and can comment on the British mindset. Even before handguns were virtually banned in 1997, it crossed few British minds to obtain a gun for self defense. There just wasn't a culture of gun ownership in late 20th century Britain. My impression is that most Britons support the current tight restrictions on gun ownership. It was very influential that the Hungerford and Dunblane massacres were committed by legal gun owners. While most Britons believe that wider gun ownership might save some victims of homicide, they have the perception that a greater number of lives would be lost due to gun accidents and increase in homicides if guns were more readily available. So, on balance, most people are in favor of the controls.
Dun has it right, unfortunately. When I was working at the local hospital, I would try to get new shooters down at the rifle club. I had much less success getting 'Brits' down to the club than I did with Ozzies and other South Africans. I would get raised eyebrows in many cases, as if I was inviting them to do something unsavory.
Anyway Calibre44 has answered the licensing requirements pretty thoroughly. I will just add one other item: there is a difference between the certificate requirements for rifles vs shotguns with a cartridge capacity of three or less. For a rifle or an air-rifle that exceeds a certain foot-pounds threshold, you have to motivate in your application why you need the gun and the police operate in the role of seeing whether your application is reasonable or not. The onus is on you to prove why you need it.
For a shotgun certificate, they have to prove why you can't have it. A shotgun is therefore easier to get than a rifle.
When applying for the certificates, a fee is payable for each one (the Firearms certificate and the Shotgun certificate) however there is a discount for getting them at the same time and for this reason many first time applicants apply for both at the same time. IIRC the fee was £60 when I did mine.
On the Firearms certificate you have to specify an initial limit of 5 firearms that you would like to have on your certificate. For example you might say that you want a blackpowder pistol in .36, a Ruger 10/22 rifle, a bolt action .243, a .38/.357 lever gun and a long barreled revolver in .44
Unlike the licensing system in South Africa, where you have to identify by serial number a weapon that you have put a deposit on, the UK certificate can be granted before you have made a commitment to purchase. The certificate is updated after the purchase, by the person who sells the firearm to you, and then you inform the police that you have bought the weapon and you tell them all the details including the serial number so that they can update the database.
Some more points:
1) You don't pay annual fees for the license.
2) Wanting two similar rifles on the certificate will cause awkward questions when you have your interview with the police. They come and see your safe and find out a bit about you, possibly just in case you have a Nazi flag hanging on your wall
The way to get two similar rifles is to specify different uses such as one scoped and one iron sights for different competitions or hunting requirements.
3) There is an ammunition limit that is determined before the certificate is issued. This limit is per calibre and the limit may be different for each weapon type. A typical limit is 1000 rounds of .22 per purchase, and a limit of 1100 in possession. Large ammunition purchases are recorded on the Firearms certificate but are not required to be reported to the police.
Before I got my FAC here in London, I had to be a trouble-free member of the rifle club for a certain period of time (it was a few months requirement IIRC) and there was a telephone conversation between the club chairman and the firearms officer assigned to handle my application. The application required two referees, one of which couldn't be a gun owner and couldn't be associated with the club. Both had to be British citizens. I didn't approach any doctors
My application went very smoothly for a number of reasons that I won't go into right now. I got my FAC in under two weeks, but other people have waited months. There is also variation according to which 'authority' you fall under. I'm in north London. Some south London geezers have had extended waiting times!
