Almost all firearms are banned in Britain. as a result of the Second Firearms Act of 1997. Now that modern guns are no longer legal, let's look at murder rates. The murder rate in the UK in 1996, the year before the Second Firearms Act, was 1.12 per 100,000. It rose to 1.24 in 1997, when the Firearms Act took effect, and continued to rise to 2.1 in 2002. The gun homicide rate has dropped dramatically since 1997 due to the Second Firearms Act, but the homicide rate still dropped. on. These higher numbers are the result of fewer people being able to arm themselves to defend themselves and the fact remains that more people are killing each other in Britain than when firearms were legal.