If it's a cultural and social issue, you can change it. Because it's a cultural and social issue, regulation of guns can cause a change of the cultural climate.
Regardless of whether it's a symptom, treating the symptom of a cultural or social issue still combats the underlying cultural or social issue, because the symptom is an avenue to proliferate the spread of the culture. You don't stop the common cold by stopping the coughing and sneezing, but by reducing the symptoms you reduce the spread of the cold. The cold naturally gets killed off. Similarly, you may not treat the issue of America having a more violence-tolerant culture by clamping down on gun ownership, but you stop the spreading of the culture by acknowledging that the gun culture in America right now is toxic and dangerous, and trying to reign it in. By reducing the spread of a specific culture, you can cause the culture to die off.
It may sound borderline totalitarian or repressive to say some cultures are unwanted but, quite frankly, the American gun culture is one of the most uninformed, radical, and dangerous cultural groups in America, and I can safely say that its current state merits change. To be fair, there are rational and reasonable members within the gun culture, but there's a very loud and vocal population within the culture that is unreasonable, paranoid, unstable, but influential. A well-informed, well-regulated culture of guns is a safe culture, and could very well even be a socially-progressive culture. But the current American gun culture is none of that, and is maintained through an unreasonable fear of authority, lies, and propaganda.