Sandy Hook attack compared to Chenpeng Village attack the lethality of guns vs knives

My thoughts and heart go out to all those impacted by the events in Sandy Hook and Chenpeng Village, especially the little ones injured and killed in both places, their loved ones, other kids in those locations and everyone who loved them.

One of the arguments raging on the internet has to do with the role of guns in the events that unfolded on Dec 14th 2012 in Sandy Hook, CT in an elementary school filled with small children on a Friday morning.  I am not sure we can ever remove guns from American society and in this particular case I am not sure that anything short of a complete ban on weapons might have prevented this.

Many say that we should be focusing on mental health issues (we are not sure these played a part here), or on something else as guns need people on the other end do cause any damage.  My personal view is that it is easier to cause harm with a firearm, and it is easier to kill with one.  But that is my personal view.  I don't own guns, I don't particularly like them and I have only ever seen one close up in my life.

I do understand that there are many responsible people who use guns and never harm anyone, just like there are many with mental issues (again not sure this is an issue here) who never harm anyone.  But there is one basic question that can be answered because of a very sad coincidence that something very similar happened on the other side of the planet, the very same day.  Would this attack have been less lethal had a different weapon been used?

In both Sandy Hook and Chenpeng we have a school filled with elementary kids, in both cases we have someone so angry with the world that they enter the school and attack small children.   We even have a very similar number of children who are victims in these attacks 20 in the case of Sandy Hook, and 23 in the case of Chenpeng.  The main difference between the two attacks is that the one in Chenpeng involved a knife and the one in Sandy Hook involved a gun.

The final counts are:

Attack date:                  12/14/12                                                       12/14/12
School:           Sandy Hook Elementary School             Chenpeng Village Primary School
Weapon used:                    Gun                                                             Knife
Children killed:                  20                                                                  0
Children injured:                 0                                                                  22
Adults killed:                       6                                                                   0
Adults injured:                     2                                                                   1
Total killed:                        26                                                                  0
Total injured                        2                                                                  23
Perpetrator mentally ill?:    ? (unknown at present)                               yes
Perpetrator alive:               No                                                                yes