The fear mostly manifests in the hearts of authoritarian socialistic people. One person with a AR15 scares the hell out of them. Take that same fearful person and march 200 armed soldiers in front of them and that's fine.
This indicates a heavy leftist preference of grouping and self identification with a social construct, such as an army or group of enforcement. The leftist authoritarian socialist prefers putting individuals in a jail or cage. The right wing authoritarians prefer putting leftist socialist groups in a jail or cage.
Socialists don't care or fear the thing, they fear the individual and want them punished. That's why this doesn't end with banning pistols, then banning rifles, then banning shotguns. They won't stop until individuals are in jail. It's about punition.