A terrorist seeks to be noticed: to commit an amount of violence (perhaps number of people killed) greater than the background level of violence to which the population has gotten desensitized.
In a society with lax gun control, with so many gun deaths all the time on average, a terrorist must commit a mass shooting to be noticed.
In a society with strict gun control, and consequently a lower background level of homicides, a terrorist could commit a mass stabbing or a mass vehicular homicide or a mass archery attack. In absolute numbers, fewer people will likely die in such attacks than in a mass shooting, but the effectiveness of the attack from a terroristic standpoint -- causing shock, traumatizing society, inducing political change -- remains the same because it stands out relative to the lower background level of violence.
Under this model, gun control will not decrease the effectiveness of terrorism.
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