Three quarters of the states were already dry before the 19th Amendment. Legislation had already worked. The only difference was that Congress was stuck defying the will of the people. Interestingly, the divide was almost entirely between rural and urban states, much like today.
Congress had to pass the Volstead Act to provide legislation that allowed them to destroy, confiscate, and regulate alcohol and its purveyors. What it didn’t do was provide enough money to properly enforce the Act. This was deliberate sabotage. The recalcitrant states also underfunded enforcement and enabled corruption.
Banning alcohol was a no-brainer health measure at the time. Deaths, illnesses, fights, spousal abuse, drunken driving, and a long list of other horrors haunt the country from this failure. Proper enforcement of alcohol would be as much a no-brainer today as it was in 1919.
Absolutely the same goes for guns.