I agree with the fact that people should not be allowed to own something like a .50 caliber machine gun. Anything higher caliber than an AR-15 (not being used for hunting of course) does not need to be in the hands of civilians. ON THE SAME NOTE, guns do not belong in the hands of thugs and gang members. My first step in fixing that would be to make it harder to buy high caliber weapons in the first place. Psych evals, reference checks, etc.... whatever it takes to keep guns out of the hands of crazies. Also, make it harder for businesses to sell guns... Where do you think all these weapons are getting into the hands of criminals anyways? If you let any random Joe Citizen sell guns, what's to stop him from selling it to whoever he wants? Money is money to gun sellers, they don't care who they sell it to. Only have state sanctioned gun shops, which require monthly inventory, as well as monthly gun registration checkups. That means, every month, you have to go in and show that you still own that gun and are legally allowed to own it. If guns go missing, someone's ass goes on the chopping block.
I understand this may not be the BEST way to handle things, as this would require state/federal funding in a country where everyone is in debt (on the flip side, it would create more jobs than it would take away), but I'm sure there are plenty other places that we can cut spending as a country.
Food for thought.