>>37713705No, UK police have been carrying guns on patrols for decades, probably as far back as maybe WWII. Before then, armed police were incredibly rare outside of Ireland.
Armed police mostly guarded high profile areas, such as nuclear power stations, government buildings and embassies, airports and military installations. Even as far back as the 1990s, I can remember this.
Since the attacks on places like the Manchester Arena, there has been an increased presence of armed police officers on regular foot patrol compared to before. Also, owning firearms for "personal protection" is only allowed in Northern Ireland, and you have to prove that someone has made a threat against your life to a judge. Otherwise, the low numbers of firearm ownership in the UK just doesn't justify the idea of having armed civilians. This isn't like America, where a lack of standing army meant that "self defence" was in case the Canadians invaded.
