Guns are merely the one technological step forward from the knife.
Next step, powder-propelled taser bullets ?
It's not (only) about how you handle street gangs and petty crime,. it's how you can work your economy in such a way there are better things to do than hang around with a life expectancy of 28 ...
Do we have street gangs here in Italy ? Yes, but they are not "gangs" by your definition, they are small groups of (un)armed Rumanians, Albanians, Ukrainians, Gypsies, and Italian petty thugs who live on a day-by-day basis.
They are dealt with by the Police, and sometimes a homeowner or jeweller will be armed and shoot (back).
By our laws, if the criminal is running, you cannot shoot him in the back, that's murder.
Sometimes it's organized crime who deals with street thugs.
As a sad anecdote...
Years ago arabic immigrants were roaming the streets, drinking, getting drunk, and being a general annoyance to the general public.
Then a team of three ganged upon a young chinese mother who was carrying her baby in her arms; they raped the woman and murdered both.
The cityfolk were livid and demanded proper measures to be taken; the Police investigated but the perpetrators, although more or less positively identified, were nowhere to be found.
They found them, alright, about ten days later, hanging by the wrists and cut to death in thin slices, in an almost ritual way; word of mouth had it was a chinese ritual killing, a rituial revenge.
The result? The chinese were molested again, and the arabs suddenly started behaving.
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