Reply #284: there was a time when

[gejohnston]

street gangs rarely used guns in the US and relied on knives, tire chains etc. If they did, it was a homemade zip gun. That was only about 35 years ago. What changed was not the gun laws but how these gangs made their money and how much they made. Same with the mob. Prior to the Volstead Act, the mob sold a little heroin, had a hand in prostitution, etc. the profit margin was not that much. Like the street gangs, they rarely used guns because they barely afford a cheap pistol let alone a (in today's money) a $2K Thompson sub-machine gun. In other words, the best way to take away their guns is to take away their money. Drug gangs do use guns and they do use automatic weapons.
the people with chains and knives are not organized crime. They are just drunk assholes and petty thieves.