I've spoken to countless gun owners and gun rights enthusiasts (almost all of whom were NRA members) and they are all very reasonable people. Almost all of them said that they would be theoretically okay with having a firearms licensing system similar to that of Canada or Sweden, but the would never support it in the United States, because they know that anti-gun lobbyists would abuse the system. I find myself holding a similar position, I know that if there is a licensing or registration system, that eventually (be it 10, 30 or even 100 years from now) someone will want to strip away our guns (at least the semi-automatic and handguns).
I know that the anti-gun lobbies have moved their their rhetoric away from "ban handguns and semi-automatics" to "we only want registration, not confiscation," but nobody I have spoken with believes that registration won't be used as a stepping stone towards an eventual ban. The United States could have had a system in place where all rational people would still be able to own firearms (including handguns and semi-automatics), but where criminals and irresponsible people wouldn't be able to, if not for the anti-gun lobby holding the view that "gun owners are a plague that needs to be wiped out."
Wouldn't you agree that in many ways, the anti-gun lobby has destroyed any chance of compromise?