Just have to hope common sense like that might prevail in Britain. This sort of registration for shotguns came in in the 1990's. Value of lower priced shotguns went down to near nothing as along with the registration came a requirement for secure storeage. There are only two reasons why a Government needs to know what its private citizens own and that is a). To tax aperson on them and b). To be able to confiscate them at a future date should they wish. This happened with our pistols when that (expletive deleted) Tony Blair came to power. I cannot find evidence of one single crime detected through use of gun registration but that is always the reasons given. Lagopus.....
Lagopus (BTW you have about my favorite moniker on here) there is only one reason for registration. And that is confiscation. The ability to tax is a lucky bonus for the gun grabbers but it is confiscation that is behind it.
In Canada, while ostensibly "long guns" were subject only to registration and fall under the "unrestricted" classification, there are two additional classifications that affect most gun owners, "restricted" and "prohibited". All hand guns fall into those two categories but some long guns do as well. Some guns, that were widely distributed prior to the enacting of these laws got made "prohibited" but existing owners were able to be grandfathered. For example, any .32 caliber handgun is prohibited. I guess a .32 is especially lethal, LOL. However, they can only sell to other "grandfathered" owners, so eventually the prohibited guns will have to be destroyed.
What kind of long guns might be restricted? Well, a fully automatic weapon is prohibited in Canada. But the prohibited and restricted designations are applied to specific models by the gun control bureaucracy with no oversight. As a result, guns that were previously legal (like semi-auto rifles that look similar to certain full auto rifles, think Hollywood movies) got re-classified as time went on and when that happened a whole lot of folks got a letter and then a visit from the police, demanding the offending gun or rifle. No compensation. No appeal. Just gone. That's what a registry is for.
The other main issue, as many of us see it, is that with the enacting of bill C68 in 1995, the same bill that brought in the registry, to be a gun owner is to be a criminal and subject to penalties under the Criminal Code of Canada, with all the issues that being a convicted felon can bring. The only way not to be is to be the holder of a current fire arms license. The day your five year license expires, you are now subject to criminal prosecution. And the anti gun people always trot out "why it's the same as a driver's license". Not by a long shot!
We still have a long way to go to stop being treated like criminals.
