If someone wants to kill you, and has a gun, not only can they do so from a distance, but it was invented for that purpose. Stabbing someone is more of an act of opportunity I'd wager, and in a lot of circumstances you'd be less likely to die, therefore reducing deaths.
Well, not quite. You said that the same number of stabbings would be equivalent to the same number of people getting shot, but didn't specify that the stabbings would be fatal. I'm suggesting that if total violent crime stayed the same, but you removed guns, you'd have less fatalities.
