NYT has a story about how Trump's own people - when he wanted to act after seeing polls showing huge support for gun control - did the same song and dance about "gee golly what's an assault rifle?" on him, until he just gave up
On Second Amendment issues, Mr. Trump’s team often wore him down by burying him in the technical details of gun policy.
Indeed, in the August 2019 conversation, when Mr. Trump suggested he wanted to find a way to ban assault weapons, Mr. Mulvaney asked how he defined them, according to the people in the room. Commonly, the term refers to a class of weapons including the AR-15 semiautomatic rifles regularly used in mass shootings.
“Well, it’s the military weapons,” Mr. Trump responded.
Legally, AR-15s are civilian versions of a military weapon that has been heavily regulated since the 1930s.
“Mr. President,” Mr. Mulvaney shot back, “military assault weapons are already against the law.”
The president abandoned the idea.