I fear you may be right, and shooters here appear to be in a cleft stick : They feel constrained by the fact that if any should demonstrate their ire at potential restrictions then the fact that they might be protesting less than politely, may well be used to suggest that they are unfit to have a gun, never mind what sort !
Periodically some stuffed shirt tells us that "the general public think this", or "we have had to bow to public pressure". These are just sound bites. No one in authority has any intention of actually finding out what the public actually thinks, in case they turn out to be more on the ball and less aquiescent than the politicos would like ! Nuff said...