As a member of a firearms club, there is just sooooo much ******** on this thread about gun clubs and gun ownership.
Its clear that most people in GD commenting there, have literally no idea what they are talking about yet feel they can tell other people. I have tried to stay out of this thread but given in because of the amount of sheer rubbish being posted.
Going through a few posts here about handguns, no you cannot legally own a handgun in the UK. If there are exceptions for ex military folk or police or whatever fine, I am not aware of those.
HOWEVER: You can legally own handguns that have been "converted" to be a minimum length, either by way of long barrel or some kind of stock (or a mix of both) and I myself have fired several of these.
If you were planning on doing something illegal, you could quite easily get one of these through the normal legal channels then convert it back to a normal handgun. One of the ones I fired, the stock was more or less a metal wire stock from the handgrip, on what is otherwise a completely normal pistol, I would image you could take of the stock in minutes with a hacksaw.
You can also legally own a black powder pistol (so no need for long barrel/stock) but you can only fire these once with a reasonably involved reload so wouldn't be any good if you went out on a killing spree.
You could also legally own pretty much any calbre rifle (including a .50 cal) as long as it cannot self load (EG gas propelled reloaded system/semi automatic) however lever action or bolt action rifle is perfectly fine. A very common calbre rifle on the UK is a .308 which will literally fire through plate steel up to a certain thickness. You can have a magazine fed rifle, so provided you can work the bolt fast enough, you could put out many rounds pretty quickly. Maybe google how many rounds a infantry could do witha bolt action rifle or similar, will give you an idea.
For a .22 calbre rifle you can have a self loading semi automatic rifle, one at the club has a 30 round magazine you can fire the lot off pretty quickly.
The rifles german solders used in world war 2 for example K98 would be perfectly legal to own in the UK, in fact a long term goal is to get one myself, all be it a replica or whatever.
I dont know anything about shotguns and/or how the licences work for these.
To get a gun legally in the UK you need to be a member of a gunclub really (with the exception of farmers and shotguns, but see above), which contrary to one post in this thread ISNT hard to do at all, most are very welcoming and generally looking for new members. You need to be a member for a certain length of time and attend a certain number of times as set out by the goverment/police regulations, then you can apply for a firearms licence. You need to have a secure place to store the guns, a good quality gun safe that is bolted to a proper wall, in an area in your house which is out of sight. The police also interview you prior and will almost certainly turn up at your house to make sure you are storing them correctly.
Most legal gun owners are very friendly, harmless people which are generally more law abiding then general public, because the police may revoke your licence for any crimes commited, INLCUDING if you get caught repeatidy speeding etc.
As a legal gun owner, you literally cannot use you gun to "defend your home" or similar, its basically the worst thing you can do, any criminal will simply rat you out, the police will take your gun, and they will come back knowing you dont have one next time. Its also generally a bad idea to tell anyone you have a gun for similar reasons.
Yes, you could go down the road of getting a gun legally, then go on a killing spree, its VERY rare, most gun crimes are commited by criminals who illegally have firearms. You can also go on a killing spree with a knife, car, hatchet, water pistol full of acid acid, or any number of common household items that are MUCH easier to get hold of then a firearm.
