The CDC looked at all the studies it could find, from those with very low numbers to those with very high numbers. And after looking at all the surveys and studies with one presumes the competency of the CDC and its panel of outside experts on the subject of firearm violence, they made the statement I quoted above. You choosing not to accept that statement does not affect its validity.
And any argument in the form of "if we had less X we'd have less X-related problems" is not an argument, it is a tautology. We could cut down on auto accidents by banning cars, but that does not mean banning cars is a good thing.
And while you are working on your reply, make sure to reference the very strict anti-gun laws in Mexico, Jamaica and Honduras when compiling crime rates, murder rates in general or murders by guns. Saying that countries with strict gun laws have lower crime rates and lower gun deaths only works if you cherry pick the countries. In terms of firearm murders, the US ranks #15, in terms of all gun deaths we rank #13, and every country ahead of us on those lists has stricter gun control. In terms of our overall murder rate we rank #111, which means that more than 100 other countries manage to kill more people per capita than we do...despite having stricter gun laws. edit: Here is the link for international intentional homicides rates.
So clearly there are society factors independent of gun laws affect gun crime more strongly than the gun laws do. So if you wanted to make a real dent in the death total rather than just wanting to ban guns, you would work on the societal differences between places with low murder rates and high ones, and try to shift US attitudes more towards the former. You could also do the same within the US by comparing firearm murder rates between states and seeing what cultural differences there are. Vermont has a murder rate in general about the same as the UK, but with 30 times the per capita firearm ownership and extremely liberal firearm laws. Obviously, Vermont has something going for it that is independent of gun ownership and gun laws.
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