Here's the deal, if I could snap my fingers and remove all semi-automatic firearms across the US I'd do it in a second. The problem is, the cat's already out of the bag. Some back of the napkin math here, but there are about 20 million AR style rifles in the US. Let's say we do a buyback program that gets rid of a full quarter of those (that's a crazy high number, but makes math easy) for $250 a pop. Just on payouts alone, nevermind the logistical overhead, that's 1.25 billion dollars to make sure that if someone previously had access to 4 rifles on average, now they have access to 3. Not to mention all the other types of semi-auto firearms available like pistols, different rifles, etc.

What we need to do is improve the material conditions for people in their daily lives. It's a whole hell of a lot harder to radicalize someone when they're happy, healthy, and have a bright future ahead of them. Nationalized healthcare, an improved housing market, and sane tax laws in this country will go a hell of a lot farther to reduce gun violence than just making them illegal ever could.

I wish this was an issue we could just legislate a fix for, I really do, but it's a symptom rather than a disease. That's not to say laws can't touch the issue. Sane and fair gun laws can and should be implemented, but on their own they will just drive the issues underground.