A working hypothesis, however, is that many of the laws were passed because of BATF lobbying efforts. Most prosecutions are under State law, and that shields the federal law from Constitutional challenges. I have had a number of people tell me of the BATF lobbying State Legislatures to pass gun laws in their States.
Ah. It might not be from simple “lobbying” efforts, though. In this state I’ve seen a number of bills over the years filed in an attempt to preserve grants being received from the feds — under threat of having those grants reduced if federally-desired laws aren’t passed.