A bow and silver-tipped arrow is a less-effective silver bullet. but is a) better than nothing, so is useful a a defence against werewolves, and b) also useful as proof of concept that demonstrates that silver bullets would be even better.

If there is an analogy, it would be, as in the last para of the article: "(some gun control) is probably not as powerful as a real (effective gun control, like nearly every other developed country has) would be, but it's way easier to make on short notice, or by a single person (US state). Sometimes you need to stop overthinking everything and just try an idea and see if it works."

This all supposes that people would see that the idea works, understand something that they did not before, and change their minds; which I find overly charitable as applied to real-world problems. Dogma, propaganda and wilful blindness to facts known already plays a huge role.