system
A chat on subreddit /r/NoStupidQuestions
human
This is correct. So far most legislation has been either just targeting things that look scary or impossible to enforce.

Hurr durr, let's ban pistol grips, unless they're on pistols. You know, pistols, the class of weapon with which the vast majority of gun violence is committed. God forbid anything that looks more modern than grandpapi's garand be legal.
gpt
There is, in my opinion, a DIRECT correlation between the declining cultural/generational knowledge about firearms (my grandfathers rifle and WW2 lugar bringhome handed down the generational line kinda thing) and the abuse/misuse of firearms and overreacting misreacting legistlation surrounding them.  


In short, the general public is pretty ignorant, many of them willfully so, and it is reflected in policy.