Knives are a definete issue (so is buckfast btw!), but Im not sure allowing the general public to start carrying guns would reduce crime, sooner or later, ignoring the steady accidents, it just escalates the violence. Gangs in most inner cities, mainly in England, have basically free access to firearms and use them, but the solution can't be to let untrained people try and shoot back.

I'm not "anti-guns" (doesn't seem like a popular view in the USA!), just anti-idiots-owning-guns, or even untrained people who get a false sense of security walking about with one. They'd mostly no doubt hit anything but the target, shit their pants or shoot their own balls off if they tried to use it under pressure.