So did the Romans...Vikings....Zulu....Greeks....Egyptians.. Here is a fun fact, many armies chose swords before guns were invented and widespread....quirky.
Even today in the USA 20 to 30% of all murders are stabbings(and that number has been consistent since the 1970s) If you go back further to the 60s back when people used to bring guns to school for shooting classes, the number of deaths from guns drops and stabbings are a good 40% of all murders.
These types of threads always go off the rails and into new tangents when guns are mentioned. If you are an English person living in London do you really care about the American gun debate as it relates to stabbings committed in England? Does information on mass shootings in the USA lead to actionable insights for people in London as it relates to these public stabbings? It makes for an interesting debate online but it does little for the people of England. There is a gang problem in England and the majority of these gangs are made up of immigrants from Africa and the Middle East. These gangs are committing the majority of stabbings against each other. There are also a number of Muslim people with known terrorist links who continue to live in England. These are the Islamic people who are committing public stabbings as acts of terrorism. The English have grown tired of this and much of this sentiment lead to help fueling Brexit.
One last thing, in the USA the gun debate centers around "access". Fine, debate that. England is a different story: Everyone in England essentially has "access" to knives. From the housewife, chef, the local butcher etc... They are everywhere and easy to access, from restaurants to grocery and hardware stores. Yet, in England these public stabbings are being routinely committed by the same groups of people. England does not have a "knife access issue".