@ John1001. I'm glad you posted that graph because it reveals why your figures are incorrect. There was a change in reporting practice in 1998 which artificially changed the rate of increase of reported crime, something you've conveniently chosen to omit. My graph and figures were taken from the Home Office data, which prefers the BSC count. Note that the BCS includes many crimes never reported to the police.

It is widely accepted that violent crime has fallen, and to suggest otherwise is simply distorting the truth for whatever reason you wish to do so.

Analyse this table. It falls, using "your" preferred measure:

Getting back to your point about the gun laws, the ban was never intended to erradicate "general" criminal behaviour with guns, because -- of course -- they ignore laws in the first place. The law was put into place to reduce the chance of another Dunblane from happening -- ie the isolated, mass killing we all hope will never happen again. So far, to that extent, it has worked.