in 1997, the UK invented a new counting system. i am pretty sure your biased source did forget to mention that. and by all means, the crime rate in general didnt go through the roof.
this is from the guardian. just FYI.
furthermore, the gun crime rate went slowly up since the mid 80s at least.
of course, if you misinterpret the statistics and only read the part you want to read, you see a steady rise after 1997 (the new gun-law). but it was there earlier and the trend just continued.
speaking of only reading the part you want to read. here is the statistic on only gun-related crimes:
YES, they rose incredibly. but look no further than my first graph or the next one to see that the UK didnt go apeshit:
THE FIRST GRAPH, RED LINE SHOWS HOW PEOPLE "FELT" (SURVEYS) SAFE. AND APPARENTLY, AFTER 1997, THEY FELT A LOT SAFER, WHILE THE GENERAL NUMBER OF REPORTED CRIMES WAS PRETTY STABLE AFTERWARDS. ALL MY SOURCES ARE BBC, GUARDIAN OR (SEMI-)GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS.
so while you look at misinterpreted and fake data from pro-gun liberalists and want to think that the UK went completely down the shitter crime-wise, i actually researched a bit.