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Guns don't kill people; people kill people

While I appreciate your efforts to apply the three criteria of judging causation to the question of gun control, I think there are other variables that must be taken into consideration in evaluating the first criteria. Even if the intention may be present regarding the desire to kill another human being, regardless of whether there is a gun present or not, it is difficult to argue that the presence of guns make the commission of a crime far easier than many other weapons. Stabbing or harming someone in a fist fight can be deadly, but it is much easier for someone to coolly and impersonally use a gun to commit murder from a distance.

Perhaps a better way of phrasing the cliche from the point-of-view of an advocate for gun control is: 'guns don't kill people; people kill people -- but guns make it easier for people to kill MORE people very quickly.' Particularly with the creation of semiautomatic firepower and other forms of guns which can be quickly fired off, it is difficult to imagine the modern phenomenon of 'school shootings' or shootings in other crowded places without the use of a powerful gun.

I think the issue of correlation, in other words, should be phrased as: "is there a correlation between increases in violence and violent deaths in the absence of gun control and greater availability of firearms?" That is the question which much be answered. Given that the U.S. has a very high rate of homicides compared to other industrialized nations with similar socioeconomic profiles, I think there is a great deal of evidence of an established correlation between gun availability and violence. However, critics will contend that there are other aspects of U.S. argument against gun control legislation. The U.S. is a complex society facing many social challenges, and violence has always been a part of its history. Availability of guns would seem to escalate this tendency, but there will always be other factors that pro-gun activists point to as causation, including violent video games as was the case after the Connecticut school shooting.