Gun handling

There's a trailer for some forthcoming Dr. Who available here. At around 0:36 one of the characters can be seen performing some negligent discharges for comedy effect, at which point another character insists that all those who are not Americans put their guns down immediately. The former character is British and the latter an American.

I infer from this that it is meant to reflect the view which some Americans now hold that we in the UK haven't a clue about how to handle firearms properly for the good reason that most of us have never handled one, let alone fired one one, as they are quite difficult to obtain legally. In fact, the revolver which is fired in this scene would have been illegal here for the past 15 years.

However, this is a time travel television programme and this exchange might well have taken place in the 19th century. If so, then it would be rather anachronistic to make the above assumption about British firearms knowledge; in the 19th century it was quite easy to arm oneself and many did, although violent crime was rather low. I would have expected a 19th century man to attribute poor handgun discipline to the fact it was being handled by a woman rather than a Briton (women not even being considered fit to vote). Of course, it could be that the scenes I saw will take place in some sort of "Westworld" theme park in our future, in which case the American's response would be in character. I'll have to wait to find out.