Gun registration and ballistic fingerprinting would be at least, if not more, effective. That way if any registered gun is used for a crime it points to the owner responsible. It would be like a car dropping a copy of the license plate when they hit you. If it is true at all, gun registration as above would be just as good if not better. All statistics that I know of show that the number of guns allowed in society is inversely proportional with the amount of crime.
Guns simply make it much riskier to be a criminal.
Given the opportunity, criminals will always seek out un-armed victims. I feel strongly that the only reason that this country has not been invaded by another country is that they would have to fight all the gun owners and not just the military. I feel that this keeps them away. The wrighters of our Constitution used guns, not laws to gain our freedom from England.