I'll just chip in to say that I agree the main focus is what's causing crime and how to reduce it rather than seeing guns as causing crime.
There is another factor I believe which should be considered and that is mortality rate - i.e. if your assailant has a knife or bat instead of a gun does your survival chances get affected?
My view is that, in general, having guns around doesn't directly make you safer overall (statistically speaking)- although obviously it could in individual incidents. That's another factor, balancing overall odds vs individual events. So while some might quote having a gun saved them, that is only a single incident vs the overall picture where probably mortality rates would decrease overall without guns in the picture.
Since having guns around implies you are in a society with more widespread guns, I'd expect the chance of mortality to increase - i.e. it would be better if criminals were restricted to less lethal tools.
Removing guns from the equation though, while I suspect it would reduce fatality rates in crime (which is nonetheless an improvement) wouldn't likely have much impact on crime itself overall, as that is linked I believe to a host of other social and economic factors.
Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...
