actions like gun control regulations don ' t '' stop criminals '' Of course they do most of the rest of the world is an example to it . The issue is of course more complicated , and currently any change in the US is impossible without huge change in the culture . But if you require all guns to be registered and all gun owners to be never convicted then you put a huge pressure to keep as far away as possible from trouble if you want to own a gun . If you also have laws that make it way more serious crime to commit any crime while armed then you make it far less likely that a lowlife scum will have a gun . ' cos unregistered gun will put him in prison for more than a theft or robbery without violence . This of course won ' t stop professional criminals from owningusing guns , but there is very few of those and a chance of getting shot by them is on par with winning lottery . On the other hand you ' re far less likely to get killed by some tweaker or robber , ' cos they don ' t fear getting shot so they ' re far less jumpy and they ' re not armed .