Government bans on a thing are a question of "should we use guns to prevent people from doing $THING?"
Given that the use of violence is a rather extreme remedy to a perceived problem, there'd have to be a pretty compelling case to warrant pulling out a gun to stop people from doing something.
Except for the 300 layers of asking nicely, , formally giving warnings, issuing fines and citations, etc., yeah it basically is just guns threats violence and totalitarianism.
Given that the use of violence is a rather extreme remedy to a perceived problem, there'd have to be a pretty compelling case to warrant pulling out a gun to stop people from doing something.
That's what government bans are.