What do Gas and Guns have in common?

We have a saying in the office: "The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stones."

Forcing market change through drastic intervention ($10/gallon artificial gas prices) won't speed up evolution. It will more likely cause more violence and result in more unintended consequences that these people never anticipate.

Perhaps some in this world need to have a bit more optimism and trust in our fellow man. We have done a decent job over the millennia adapting to the environment, finding solutions to problems and using the resources wisely. You may call me naive and think just the opposite. That man is the root of all that is bad in the world. However, when it comes to naivete and myopic thinking, the commentary from the EnergyBulletin.net via the SF Gate perfectly illustrates much of what is wrong with the other side:

"Another example: You know what would happen if guns -- all guns, everywhere -- were banned outright tomorrow? Well, right off, nothing much. Criminals would still commit crimes. Lawsuits would skyrocket. The NRA would shoot itself in the face in screaming protest. Crime rates would dance all over the map. It would be a little ugly."

BUT, he goes on to say:

"But then something remarkable would happen. Over a short blip of time -- say about 10 or 20 years, as gun manufacturing ceased and the culture of gun violence died down and our favorite death object was less visible in the news and in video games and on TV and in every aspect of modern life, well, guess what? Guns would begin to disappear. From the culture, from the drug dealers, from the streets, from public consciousness. They would turn into a sad relic, like eight-track tapes, like the bubonic plague, like the Miami Sound Machine. Think 20 years is too long? It is but an eye blink, a twitch."

And the conclusion is? Nothing. That's it. Guns would just disappear.

My question is: "What does this solve?" I assume the implication from this rhetoric is that if guns disappear, peace would break-out everywhere. No one would kill another person. Nations wouldn't be able to go to war. Life would return to Eden.

Who's naive now?