I still recall reading an article by a British constable who pointed out that before 1919 there were no gun controls at all in England with the exception that you were required to get a stamp at the post office to purchase a handgun.
The stamp was issued as routine, no investigations, reason for wanting it or anything else. One could carry it without a permit.
He also pointed out that typically the number of armed robberies in a year for all of England could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Clearly gun control has nothing or nearly nothing to do with crime. It probably could be strongly inferred that gun control caused crime.
If I remember my history, after WW I England had a RED Scare and decided to start controlling guns. They then fabricated some crime reports to get the ball rolling.