While we're at it, can we ban cocaine (including crack), heroin, and methamphetamine, too?
It would cut the crime rate if they weren't available because they were illegal.
Seriously, Cap, it's a cost/benefit analysis here... how many deaths would be prevented if (not sure what your actual plan for gun control is) was implemented, and how much would it cost?
Canada brought in rifle/shotgun registration, at a cost of $2 billion, and it did nothing except convince the shadier gun owners to NOT register their guns.
(I know y'all spend that on the military every day before lunch down there, but that's big money up here).
To go back to the ever handy automobile industry, how many deaths are caused every year due to poor vehicle design and inadequate quality control? LOTS. Let's see government regulation on those items first. There'd be a bigger return in terms of death reduction there. Or in the Canadian example, we don't need more policing to prevent murders, we need more resources for councilling the suicidal.
In a society where violent assault is a real possibility (for both you as a NY'er, and LLR as proven by past events), this split in opinion seems to come from what end of the gun you see yourself being on. To shoot straight from the hip, in terms of random muggings in a city environment, it's my opinion that a well-trained gun owner has a higher chance of preventing a mugging, but probably also a greater chance of being shot by a twitchy mugger with a gun. Unless you're Clint Eastwood.