I think it is trying to make us look like yahoos. It isn't saying we need the assult rifle to keep "them" from getting our guns but to keep "them" from getting our assult rifles. When looked at with the awareness that most Americans when polled (and I realize the polls use leading questions) think "assult rifles" should be banned (based on a misunderstanding of what commercial "assult rifles" are capable of, what real "assult rifles" are, even what real "assult rifles" are capable of, and again, on loaded questions) the cartoon looks very different than when seen in a vacuum. From that perspective (most Americans seeing "assult weapons" as BAAAAD), it is trying to make us look like extremists and yahoos. Think about the message that most non-gun people (the fence sitters, hunters and others, not the unreachable antis) will take from the cartoon, not what gun people see when they look at it.
We desperately need to take back the debate and to start defining the terms (why should sporterized military rifles be called assult rifles to begin with?- educate, educate, educate, the masses).