mharr wrote:Neo-liberal, as in "a modified form of liberalism tending to favour free-market capitalism?" From an outside US perspective, I don't immediately see that in their generalised request to take tools for mowing down entire crowds off the streets (via increased regulation) and increase funding for mental healthcare. It's not like an outright ban on private firearms was gonna fly. Half-measures and politicized nonsense are what democracy looks like when it's working.
We've got a bit of a nomenclature problem in describing political factions.
Most people agree we can loosely divide the Democratic Party into two wings, and that those wings are represented by Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in the '16 primary season.
The Clinton wing is variously described as centrist, moderate, liberal, progressive, establishment, New Democrat, or neoliberal, depending on who's talking.
The Sanders wing is described as liberal, progressive, left-wing, leftist, socialist, Social Democrat, and New Deal Democrat. (These lists are, of course, not exhaustive. And of course once you veer off into Fox News territory, it all gets distorted and every Democrat is a liberal progressive leftist socialist commie, those words are all used interchangeably, and nothing means anything anymore.)
All of these terms have their problems; none is perfect. I generally share your sentiment that "neoliberal" is the wrong word here and should be reserved for its specific, original economic meaning. However, various other terms to describe the political bent of these proposals are all ambiguous and potentially misleading too. And most of the politicians proposing this type of gun control policy are neoliberals. So it's "neoliberal policy" in that it's a policy held by neoliberals, if not a policy that is itself neoliberal.
Basically, I agree that "neoliberal" isn't exactly the right word here, but I also don't think there is an exactly right word, since nobody really quite agrees on the lexicon and these terms mean different things to different people.