Why the NRA wins. (4)

[Eleanors38]

3. Gun bans are liberal pet-reactionary impulses...

Most often "reactionary policy" aptly describes conservative thought, but the anti-gun outlook serves as a well of reaction in some liberal circles. Since the late 60s, when the outlook gained some credence, it has remained remarkably unchanged.
The emphasis is on bans, many of which have, as you say, an incremental in character. The ban de jour is always "a good beginning," a thunderous telegraph of ultimate intent to any opposition. The proudly studious ignorance of firearms in general & the object to be banned in particular. The lazy reliance on mass MSM editorial and "news" to conjure some poorly-conceived "movement." The suspect studies and sloppy psychological tagging. The top-down federal ban approach. The vivid culture war smear and hate directed "officially" at the fat, dumb, white male NRA, but unofficially at tens of millions of gun-owners. And the refusal to see the political damage to would-be efforts at change, the image of liberalism, the Party's prospects and to the prohibitionists' own viability.

That unchanging element. If that doesn't sum up reaction, I don't know what does.