It's true, though we do have international arms conventions that have been partly successful in preventing widespread use of say, chemical and biological weapons (but not completely, e.g. Syria). And nuclear proliferation has maybe been slowed, a little. Hard to tell if those are 'guarded successes' or 'the best we could hope for' or 'just kidding ourselves' - so like the same for slaughterbots.
The difference between those past successes and this is that with none of the previous doomsday weapons has it been possible to cobble something together from COTS parts and open software. Nor have they had a large degree of crossover with your common garage tinkerer hobbies like drones and robotics. Nuclear material and chemicals are likely easier to put controls around or get names put on a list if/when acquiring them.
Applying controls to software and embedded hardware is a bit more difficult. Then you have things like precision GPS systems that might just be too useful for civilian uses to not allow free access to. It feels like pandoras box might already have been opened on this one without some backpedalling in certain areas.
