Americans own more than 393 million #guns, which is almost half of the civilian-owned guns in the world. It is not surprising given the explicit right to bear arms enshrined in the US constitution. However, the number of mass shootings and gun-related violence in the US is highest among the advanced industrial democracies. New gun laws may make it harder to acquire new assault weapons; however, the question remains about the millions of ARs already owned by citizens that are contributing to the destruction of peace in the country. The only possible solution to eliminate the prevalent crimes and violence is a gun buyback program to reduce violent crimes involving assault weapons.

The purpose of such a program is to reduce the number of lethal weapons in society, which, in turn, will reduce the number of tragedies involving such assault weapons. There is no need to have these types of dangerous weapons in the hands of the general public.

There is a direct relationship between the number of assault weapons and the increasing rate of crime. Those who believe that gun buyback program will be ineffective in reducing violence and crimes are following the flawed assumption. The increased number of assault weapons in the hands of criminals will lead to a surge in violent crimes. There is a school of thought which believes that these firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens might act as a deterrent. However, a number of studies have shown that these weapons are the reason for pervasive violence in society.

There are many countries where these practices have reduced crimes dramatically. For example, following the Port Arthur Massacre, Australia banned assault weapons and introduced a nationwide gun buyback program. Within one year, more than a half million weapons were recovered from private citizens, and subsequent analysis showed that there was a 42% decrease in the homicide rate. Other countries like Argentina have also had a gun buyback program in which it recovered 7% of the total firearms in the country, resulting in reducing crimes significantly.

Various states within the US have also practiced some sort of buyback program. According to one program in New Jersey, there were more than 4500 firearms collected in just two days. As the events unfolded and more guns were submitted to the government by the citizens, it was found that many of those weapons were used in previous crimes.

In addition to that, there is also evidence that shows that most of the perpetrators of these mass #shootings have some sort of mental illness. So, the presence of lethal firearms in the hands of these mentally unstable individuals make them even more dangerous. In such scenarios, the reduction of these assault weapons from the society makes perfect sense, and mandatory gun buyback programs for assault weapons are bound to reduce firearms from streets resulting in the reduction of violent crimes and homicides to much extent.