They’re statists. They usually don’t grasp what they’re supporting.
Statism allows for a “captured state”, a nation run by a few corrupt elites behind the scenes.
Statist security and police can run roughshod over a disarmed public “sheeple”.
Almost none of the supporters of gun grabbing would be amongst the handful of elites; they’d merely be sheeple working for the state themselves, thus living a life of slavery.
It's remarkable to me how every liberal statist is 100% sure they are going to be among those elites when the shift is complete.
There were no doubt many university intellectuals in Cambodia who welcomed the Khmer Rouge with open arms, expecting limitless cash and countless slave girls to be sent their way - only to find themselves at hard labor in a rice paddy in less than a month.
Those republican safeguards that make it so difficult for would-be elites to indulge in their desires also make it difficult for a state to enslave them, and they attempt to erode those safeguards only at great peril to themselves. But good luck getting them to understand that.