I would rather have a half-brick in a sock any day of the week over a plastic gun.

I would also rather that whatever legitimate guns exist in any population of people belong mostly to the good and law-abiding people of that population. More guns, weather printed, smuggled or cobbled isn't going to change the ratio of law-abiding gun owners to law-defying gun owners. Consequentially, reducing the number of guns in a population won't change the ratio either.

If the gun laws of a place make it definitively impossible to be a law-abiding gun owner, then only changing the laws will help that, not changing the number of guns out there.