This is an interesting thread and begs a question: is there any web site anywhere where issues of "gun control" and gun ownership are discussed in anything approaching a civil manner? It seems that positions on this issue, like abortion, have become so polarized that there is no room for a middle ground or civil discourse.
I'm a reader of the Gateworld.net forum, for "Stargate" fans, and there's a thread there in the off-topic section on gun control.
In it, I've discovered that trying to reason with anti-gun Brits is like trying to catch a greased pig. The moment you get anywhere close to breaking through their anti-gun, anti-self-defense mindset they deliberately miss the point or slip away to some other subject.
For example, I asked someone whether they kept Band-Aids at home in case they cut themselves while slicing onions in the kitchen, and his comeback had something to do with the idea of having to defend himself against a kitchen knife that took on a life of its own and started attacking him.
Upon pointing out that certain parts of Manchester have three times the murder rate of the most deadly city in the US, they said "oh, that's only a few square blocks," coming dangerously close to but still failing to realize that comparing the entire UK to the entire US in various crime statistics simply doesn't work.
It gets tedious after a while, and loses its entertainment value.