States with more gun regulations had lower rates of gun deaths, and states with less gun laws had higher gun death rates, both in terms of suicide and homicide.
Direct causation could not be determined, but at the very least, such a strong correlation should make it clear that existing public policy in many states with lax gun laws comes at a high price: more dead mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and others.
In addition, higher firearm ownership rates were also heavily correlated with higher firearm fatalities, and lower ownership rates were correlated with stronger gun control legislation.
And if you are going to say "Well, that's just one study..." remember that the reason that government funding has been cut for ANYTHING which can provide this type of data has been cut on the basis that it could be used to "promote gun control".
Why cut the research funding if the truth is on your side?