i know of one firearm that was traced back to the owner after 10-12 years. sounds like registration to me
That's not the same thing. Believe me, I lived in Hawaii for 3.5 years so I know what registration looks like.
Let's use your example. "John" goes to his local gunstore and buys a new Glock 10-12 years ago. He fills out the 4473, etc. Takes the gun home and all is well in the world.
But then there is a criminal investigation. Either that gun was stolen and then recovered from a criminal or used in a crime. Or the gun was found at a crime scene involving the original owner. Whatever the situation, there was a crime, the gun was found there, the question is, "Who owns this gun?" Glock is queried about the serial number. They look at their records and say which distributor they sold it to. That distributor is contacted and they say what retail shop they sold it to. Somewhere down the chain, they end up at your local gun store. He was the last person who owned it before you. The investigators request he check his records. He pulls the 4473's and there is your name and address. He hands that off to the LEO's.
Now you might have sold that gun to your neighbor. Or at a gun show. Or in a Classified ad in the newspaper. Or lost it in a boating accident. All we know for sure is that the gun can have its serial number tracked down to the last person who bought it new.
Registration, on the other hand, is what Hawaii has. When the US Army sent me there, I took about 15 of my privately owned guns with me. When they were delivered to my new house, the clock started running. I think it was 10 days then but that was 1986. I had to physically take every single gun I owned down to the Honolulu Police Department HQ. I had to carry every gun right into the front lobby and hand them over to be inspected and their barrels measured. Serial numbers copied down. All my legal information entered. Any new guns I acquired after that had to have the same process. My 1SGT would get really annoyed with me when I would tell him I bought a new gun and now I have to drive all the way downtown to register it. And it has to be done during business hours. He told me to quit buying guns.... I didn't need them anyway!
So in the case of Hawaii, any cop could have put my name into the system and seen a full and complete list of every gun I legally owned. That's what registration looks like. It was an annoying and pointless exercise in futility. Nobody even tried to pretend that it "prevented crime" in any way at all to have the honest citizens lining up with their guns and registering them. But that didn't stop the politicians!
Gregg