I totally agree about the societal issues. I think a failing to address these issues is a failure of a lot of governments, not just the US. I don’t think you can ignore the role of guns though. The US has the second highest rate of gun violence ownership in the world and the highest rate of gun violence (amongst modern western democracies). You also have one of the highest rates of homocide in the western world. That seems to be a pretty bit coincidence.

There may be an answer to the gun debate, but I don't think it stems from a ban of any kind.  I feel like a lot of the legislation of the last couple of decades have done very little to solve these issues and have just been a legislative bandaid used to garner political favor under the guise of "doing something".  I'd be interested in hearing a creative solution that doesn't rely on penalizing the law-abiding gun owners.  And I'd be interested in hearing what percentage of gun-related homicides are from legally-obtained guns.  It certainly doesn't help things when government officials drop loads of guns across the border for gangs to use.  High probability they wound up back in the US with those gangs.  Excuse the pun, but this government is shooting itself in the foot.