A $100 billion, one-time program aimed at buying back 200 million firearms at $500 a pop.

[Xithras]

122. Actually, gun buybacks aren't a bad idea.

It's the notion that you can use buybacks to significantly reduce the overall number of guns in our society that is being pooh pooh'd. Gun buybacks can be very effective at getting already-illegal firearms off the street, and for removing inherited firearms that are simply sitting in a closet owned by someone with no interest in them. This is a laudable thing, but guns and rifles like these are a fairly small percentage of the overall number of firearms in the United States. The FBI has stated that there are about 200 million privately owned firearms in the U.S. (the overall number of civilian-owned firearms is higher, but the difference includes firearms held by security companies, police departments, museums, etc.) , so the OP's plan was to remove them ALL via this buyback.

That plan isn't even remotely realistic. A buyback like this would certainly remove MILLIONS of firearms from circulation, but how many millions? Five? Ten? That's a worthy goal, but isn't much of a dent in the overall number of firearms held by private owners in this country. If the PLAN is to eliminate all private firearms via a $500 buyback, the plan will never work. If the plan is merely to offer a buyback to take as many as possible off the street, then it will work as well as any other buyback.