>Again, if you don't mind registering your car or your kids, why the big deal about registering guns?

Because gun registration makes no sense. Registration equals government control. For vehicles, that means taxation. Do you pay a yearly registration fee on your automobiles up there? My guess is yes. Registration is a means for the state to collect the fees required for road maintenance (and the registration system itself).

I'm not sure how kid registration came into this discussion. We don't really do that here. There are voluntary programs for child ID in case of kidnapping, but that is usually done at the local level. Besides, mine aren't destructive devices...uh, well maybe they are.

Registration also equals government control. Gun registration has been used repeatedly by governments as a prelude to gun confiscation. That has happened in Canada, Britain, and Australia, in recent memory. THAT's the big difference. Registration gives the law-abiding gun owner NOTHING in return for the government's knowledge of what that person owns. I have a real problem with that.