That's not a meme. That's an organization from WW2 that collected firearms and sent them to England during the war.
Mostly before the war, as far as we were concerned
American Committee for the Defense of British Homes ...Big surprise here, the Wikipedia article cited has a "gun culture" section that is almost entirely reliant on one British historian who dismisses the American perspective as NRA propaganda. It most definitely was not. You might call it well-meaning, stupid, or a variety of other things, but it was a genuine difference of perspective. I could just as easily call his perspective propaganda, but there's no need for that especially since I'm a fan of "Dad's Army" and "'Allo 'Allo" and other British perspectives on history ... Blackadder and Monty Python are probably my faves, though.
then again, I'm pretty sure I'd trade those for a round with the wet celery and flying helmet.
Americans donated and loaned guns through the group with the idea that they would go to the British citizenry to defend their homes and land. To an American, it was common sense that the populace should be armed and they believed the British government would see that after Dunkirk and facing possible invasion. Also, a gift from citizen to citizen would completely circumvent the Neutrality Acts preventing military aid to Britain(and other countries). Americans were in part, hoping to reawaken the idea of the unorganized militia in the Brits.
However, the donated guns were always destined for home guard units which were attached to the army. Arming the populace was only briefly considered (and probably never seriously) by the British government because they were afraid of guns being used by criminals and didn't think they would be effective against invasion in the hands of civilians. Since the home guard units were attached to the army, the way the British used them caused the US to be in violation of it's own law. Since the US govt was aware of all of this, it allowing the transaction to take place was a case of politicians subverting the rule of law within the US and an act of war against the Krauts (not that I care, except that Americans were effectively swindled by both the US and British govt. so that the US could commit an act of war; and Americans weren't so keen about getting mixed up in what was European business at the time ... kinda the whole reason for the Neutrality acts to begin with.)
Once we were at war, we sent them WAY more stuff legally through lend-lease and other ways.
I actually have one of the pistols that went through this program but do not know if it was a returned one or one sold back to the American public. It is a civilian version of an early S&W revolver and has the correct markings, but no provenance. I ran across it being sold as a basic protection gun and snapped it up for a WWII collection when I saw the marks.
At any rate, the program didn't have a real effect on the war effort, and no effect at all on British gun rights.
