and yes most gun deaths are innocents too. Wives and chidren murdered by the very thing that was "supposed" to protect them. How sad is that? Leavng a loaded gun around is about the most dangerous thing you can do for your family. Why do so many still insist on doing it?
I agree we need to keep reducing auto fatalities too. Govt. safety regulations have already reduced them by over 90% oer mile traveled. But we still need to do more, just like we need to do more with gun safety.
There are many husbands and wives that kill their significant other (mostly its the man that kills the woman though), and they do this with knives, hammers, poison, drowning, beating with fists, and any other way that's ever been thought up for people to kill each other LONG BEFORE any guns were around... He'll, most anything in your house could be used as a weapon in the right circumstance... The fact is that people can be dangerous.
You could have a gun on your hip for years and never have to pull it out outside of a gun range, and most people with guns do just that, but the fact is that you are about 80 times more likely to see a crime stopped with a gun than committed with a gun, and 75% of gun crimes are gang related anyway...
So, until we eliminate crime from society, then we can talk about banning guns, but even then there's wildlife to deal with also, so, even then it may not be entirely prudent.
Unless you get lucky, If you are the victim of a crime, gun related or not, the police cannot help you until they get there in avg 15 min... Then they take the report of the crime and investigate accordingly.
And even then, you only increase your odds of a better outcome, you can have a weapon and still be a victim, nothing is certain o course, but why would you want to be an easy victim??