Short answer no.

Firearms licensing in the UK has sine the Victorian period been highly restricted. To get a licence has since at least World War 2 required:

A letter from your family doctor, saying that you are mentally and physically fit to own a firearm.

A gun safe where ammunition and firearms are in separate compartments. The safe must meet police standards and usually a burglar alarm wired to the local police station is required.

You must have a reason to own a firearm such as clay pigeon shooting, vermin control on a farm etc. Self protection has not been a valid reason since about 1948.

When these conditions have been met you can then apply to your local police station for a firearms licence. Who will then decide if you can have one or not.

Each weapon that you own will be listed on the licence and the number and type that you can own as well as the quantity of ammunition that you can store will also be listed on the licence, which is up to the polices discretion.

You may find that in a built up area that the local police will be extremely hesitant in issuing a licence but that rural forces are more likely to issue one.

There has never been a mass gun culture in the UK. The UK NRA does very little political campaigning and merely runs firearms safety classes and organises shooting competitions.

All of that hasn't really changed in decades. What has changed is the type of firearms that you can own.

Following the Hungerford shooting of 1986 automatic rifles, pump action shotguns and semi automatic shotguns with a capacity greater than two were banned.

Following the Dunblane shooting of 1998 handguns of .22 and larger were banned.

Since that time further restrictions have been imposed such as high power air rifles and pistols being banned along with some starter pistols that can easily be modified to fire live ammunition.

If you have a section IV firearms licence you can purchase a .50 caliber semi-automatic such as a Barett (illegal in California). You would almost certaintly have to say it was for big game shooting overseas to get one.

Shooting of clay pigeons, targets and game such as deer still happens in the UK and is taught in some schools.

So firearms haven't been banned in the UK just restricted but has been since the Victorian period. But we have never had the same gun culture as in the US. Probably largely due to us never having had a second amendment or the lawlessness of the wild west, where a firearm may have been a necessity for personal protection..

Following the Boer war shooting in the UK was actively encouraged by the govt. due to the poor marksmanship standards in the British army at the time.

This shooting culture which was born of war slowly evolved and competitive sport shooting became common, now at least among fellow shooters the Military aspect doesn't really come into it (at least unless some people are having a mauser vs Enfield argument, but that is history)

However after the world wars it declined somewhat, now rifle shooting doesn't really have much of a wider cultural influence (except when it's portrayed negatively), it's a shame really if you tell someone you shoot rifles they often look at you as if you've murdered someone.

Shotgun shooting still has a positive cultural impact though, Queenie and Phil have been known to swat pheasants on occasion.

It might be because Shotguns have always been used for sport and are fashionable due to their use by the wealthy (as opposed to their use by toothless Tod the blind Somerset farmer, who's idea of game shooting is sorting out the large rat which chewed through his TV aerial wire whilst match of the day was on)

Rifles on the other hand were weapons of war given to us plebs so we could learn to kill people, it hasn't really escaped that stigma even though the sport has changed fundamentally, no army today uses bolt actions as its main weapon the link between civvy and military shooting is very much dead! I would say in many social circles it would not be socially acceptable to say you were a rifle shooter.

Certainly at Uni people have asked me why I "practice killing people" when you try to explain to them that you have never, have never wanted to and will never kill someone and shootign at a black circle at 300 yards is a sport as much as golf, darts, javelin, shotput or archery are they are not interested. They see headlines in the US then apply them to UK, in the UK we don't own or shoot guns for self defence, it doesn't even come into it, in fact if it did you would be denied a licence. For us it's a purely sporting activity.