$30 Billion to buy back 300,000,000 guns at 1000 USD per gun--if my math is correct

[librechik]

Australia bought back the guns.
https://www.vox.com/2015/8/27/9212725/australia-buyback

"The so-called National Firearms Agreement (NFA), drafted the month after the (Port Arthur mass) shooting, sharply restricted legal ownership of firearms in Australia. It also established a registry of all guns owned in the country, among other measures, and required a permit for all new firearm purchases.

One of the most significant provisions of the NFA was a flat-out ban on certain kinds of guns, such as automatic and semi-automatic rifles and shotguns. But there were already a number of such guns in circulation in Australia, and the NFA required getting them off the streets.

Australia solved this problem by introducing a mandatory buyback: Australia's states would take away all guns that had just been declared illegal. In exchange, they'd pay the guns' owners a fair price, set by a national committee using market value as a benchmark..."

Admittedly they had many fewer guns. It will be very expensive.

Our failed fighter plane the F35, cost $400 billion.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/military-admits-billion-dollar-war-toy-f-35-is-fked

Even if my math is wrong and it cost us $300,000,000,000 to do the buyback, clearly we waste more than enough money in our military budget to pay for it.

Can we afford to pay for saving a few lives instead of blowing them away any time somebody fucking feels like it? Conservatives claim we can't. Oh, and paying for health care, including mental health care is also impossible. (Also a $400 Billion project. )

Because we have to have really big guns on planes.

[Lars39]

1. What was the annual medical amount for gun violence? A few Billion iirc

I don’t remember if that included funerals.
A few billion would help offset the buyback a bit.

[Takket]

2. 300 billion. Not 30

[librechik]

4. Thanks. Still less than the F35.

[dpd3672]

3. The premise assumes 100% participation

Which I doubt would happen.

The people that would participate are largely the people that would never commit a crime in the first place...people who generally try to obey the law (assuming this was mandatory, not voluntary). I hate to regurgitate NRA talking points, but they're dead on here.

Additionally, lots of guns are worth significantly more than $1,000, and if this were enacted, the value of ALL guns would skyrocket (supply and demand, look at the prices for fully automatic weapons after the 1986 ban...they went from a few dollars more than a semi-auto version to several times that amount...an M16 could be purchased well under $1000 with a little aggravation, now they start about $20,000 and up). Secondly, to a criminal, a gun is a tool that's capable of generating revenue far in excess of $1,000.

Also, the tab is $300 Billion, not $30 Billion. Splitting hairs, but might as well put it out there.

And as the "War on Drugs" showed us, if there is a significant demand for a product, smugglers and the black market will fill the void. So we're back to NRA talking points...the only guns would be in the hands of criminal enterprises and well connected/financed individuals.

I really don't feel the answer is in rounding up guns. It has a lot more to do with punishing criminals and changing people's hearts and minds, as corny as that sounds. Where there is a will, a determined person will find a way.

[jmg257]

6. How much would they be worth if they were illegal to own? Assuming that is part of the Plan...

[librechik]

7. I just picked $1000 at random. AU used fair market value to compensate.

so, the figure could be closer to the F35 debacle. Which we gladly wasted.

[Thor_MN]

9. Amazing how accounts just spring up to claim that nothing can be done.

Won't work!!1!! There's these gunz that are worth more!!!1!!

Never mind that the legitimate value of the weapons that we have to get rid of, one way or the other, is zero if they are outlawed. Antique, collector, ornamental weapons are not used in mass murders, they are fairly cheap, mass produced weapons designed to spray metal at a fast rate.

We need to start somewhere and never will if we listen to these shills.

[librechik]

11. military style automatics and semi-automatics weapons were banned in the NFA. So yes

100% participation for those weapons apparently was achieved in the two waves of buybacks.

[jmg257]

5. Shoot - I'd take $1000 per...except for the M1s.

[dpd3672]

8. My point was just that fair market value is fluid, and enacting this program would cause

FMV to skyrocket, exponentially. Ie, what’s worth $1000 today could be worth $10,000, $20,000, or more as the program was rolled out. Gun owners are aware of this, as is evidenced by their “stockpiling” guns or ammo they suspect will be regulated.

Not sure if making millionaires out of political opponents is the unintended consequence you’re looking for.

[jmg257]

10. My point is that value would plummet if they werei

Illegal.

I.e. no grandfathering...otherwise what’s the point?