The Canadian gun registry is a pointless piece of government overreach.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Firearms_Registry"In 1995, the Department of Justice reported to Parliament that the system would cost $119 million to implement, and that the income generated from licensing fees would be $117 million. This gives a net cost of $2 million. At the time of the 2002 audit,
the revised estimates from the Department of Justice were that the cost of the program would be more than $1 billion by 2004/05 and that the income from licence fees in the same period would be $140 million.[6]"
"The net annual operating cost of the program is reported to be $66.4 million for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.[1]"
So there you have it. You think the USA will implement it better? Maybe, since the technology is now better inplace to actually implement a registry much faster and easier. It is going to cost money, yes, but the question is how much? Well, since it is government, and government is always off on their cost projections (have they ever been on target?), it is going to cost more than what they state.
"This was an effort to reduce crime by making every gun traceable."
Has it had a noticeable difference in crime? Well, not really. Hard to say since, well..
"The performance report focuses on activities such as issuing licences and registering firearms. The Centre does not show how these activities help minimize risks to public safety with evidence-based outcomes such as reduced deaths, injuries and threats from firearms."
Also,
"Former Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino is opposed to the gun registry, stating in a press release in 2003:
We have an ongoing gun crisis including firearms-related homicides lately in Toronto, and a law registering firearms has neither deterred these crimes nor helped us solve any of them. None of the guns we know to have been used were registered, although we believe that more than half of them were smuggled into Canada from the United States. The firearms registry is long on philosophy and short on practical results considering the money could be more effectively used for security against terrorism as well as a host of other public safety initiatives."[11]"