In an MSNBC focus group that aired Thursday, gun owners audibly laughed when asked if they thought mandatory gun buybacks were a good idea.

"Let me ask you about a proposal that's been floated out there by a presidential candidate, or more, about gun buybacks," "MSNBC Live" host Ali Velshi said before bluntly asking, "Who thinks that's a good idea?"

Some in the group smirked, several laughed out loud, and one gentlemen quipped, "I bought mine for a million bucks. So, if they're willing to pay that …"

The panel consisted of eight gun owners from southeast Wisconsin, all with differing occupations and political persuasions and varying numbers of guns owned — one panelist owned one gun while another owned more than one hundred.

On several issues related to gun regulation, there was some disagreement and debate among the panelists, but the issue of gun buybacks was met with unanimous skepticism and derision.

While gun buyback programs have remained a common argument among gun control advocates who desire to reduce the number of firearms owned by civilians, the proposal became a central issue this year when failed Democratic presidential candidate and former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke began vocally arguing for mandatory gun buybacks during his campaign.

Later in the discussion, some of the panelists also called out companies like Walmart and Dick's Sporting Goods for virtue-signaling in removing guns from their stores.



"Walmart stopped selling them, you can go to Fleet Farm. It's the same people that want to get them and will get them. They're still going to get them," Carol Reuter, a nursing home activities director, said.

"So now this is their way out to say they can be the hero. 'We are going to get rid of all this stuff.' Well, they were probably looking for a way to get rid of them anyway," another panelist added.

"They still sell alcohol, which kills as many people," another panelist concluded as others scoffed in agreement.

In the final seconds of the video, retired police Officer Gregory Phillips described protecting the Second Amendment as his No. 1 issue for the upcoming presidential election.

"Don't mess with my rights to protect my family by trying to take away my firearms," he said resolutely.

You can watch the full MSNBC video below: