More Words, Deeper Hole

Joss Whedon was never particularly troubled by that hobgoblin, no.

I think one of the benefits of a general populace alerted to the vampire problem would be some wholesale changes in funeral practices. Cremation might become mandatory; or if not, a precautionary stake hammered through the heart before the body is laid to rest. That should cut way down on the incidence of people killed by vampires rising up to become vampires themselves. Vamps who want to create baby vamps would have to not only turn the victim, they'd have to hide the body until it rises.

It's true that the older, stronger, less dumb vampires could probably dodge or slaughter a lot of the mobs of normals armed with body temperature detectors and stake-firing shotguns. But those detectors could do a good job at flushing many entrenched vampires from their cushy -- and influential -- positions as captains of industry or wealthy gadabouts or whatever they're posing as.

Or heck, you don't even need the fancy-schmancy detectors, now that I think about it -- crosses seem to be universally dangerous to Buffyverse vamps. (A fact with theological implications which were never explored, but I digress.) Scatter checkpoints around everywhere where you have to put your bare hand on a cross for a few seconds, and then display your lack of a burn mark. Cheap and easy.

The vampires may be individually quite powerful, at least the older ones. But they have severe and distinctive vulnerabilities, we outnumber them several million to one, and we can build useful gadgets to exploit their weaknesses. I still say that if the whole population went knowledgeably after vamps, we'd get most of them in pretty short order. Not without casualties, of course; but hey, can't make an omelette without losing a few civilians along the way.