Using a War on Drugs strategy can only lead to failure, similar punishments were doled out to weed possession/sales and look at how that has utterly collapsed. If people want guns they will get them. Post-facto policing and prison will just cause people to not report certain crimes to the police, creating an underground black market that criminals flourish in. Just as what happened during Prohibition when alcohol possession carried a 5 year prison sentence. Putting random people in jail for having guns at a checkpoint or door-to-door sweep means they are sent to prisons where they are introduced to gangs who are likely to recruit them. This is jet fuel for organized crime that can actually harm the government's operations.

Any effective government would address the reasons why people want to arm themselves. Usually, this is a result of ineffective policing, maladjusted courts, and poor social policies. Organized terrorism usually has the same origins.