Calling a gun a tool is intentionally misleading. A gun's sole purpose is as a weapon, using it any other way is a misuse of that "tool". Whereas knives have various practical purposes. Which was obviously the purpose of my initial reply.
In some cases, yes, having a gun is entirely legitimate (assuming used safely) such as protection from dangerous wildlife. But the number of legitimate cases does not even come close to justifying the number of guns, or the gun culture, in America. Violence doesn't happen in a vacuum, no, the presence of guns, the acceptance of gun culture, and the normalization of gun violence are things that make gun crime so common.
The removal of guns, and restricting of them to legitimate use cases IS dealing with the underlying social issues. But definitely only part of the solution, that alone is not enough, but nothing else will have a strong effect while so many guns are on the streets and easily accessible.