One option is that they screwed up. Statists tend to pick a route, then follow it regardless of changing circumstances. You can see this in election coverage and polls, where the politicians and media act like it's still 1995 and will do so for 30 more years.

The gun control agenda worked brilliantly from the 60s to the 90s. The people in power are either the same people behind that success, or their immediate sycophants from that era. Even if public opinion has changed, they have a sort of mental lock-in that doesn't let them deviate.

Plus of course, they are on a mission from God /sarc