Was thinking about registration tonight and asked myself "What does the government use the gun registration database for?".  Surely not good for tracking down criminals or solving crimes.   Is it just a database sitting somewhere that they update but don't use for anything?

The only thing I could think of is that if someone commits a felony or has a restraining order against them, they have a list of their guns so they can confiscate/hold them.   I understand/believe that if full scale confiscation were to occur, they would have the list which is very very convenient.    Also, a couple of months ago, I got a call from HPD about a rifle a bought a while back.  They mentioned something about the ATF looking at the database.    Do they share the entire database with the feds?

Does anyone have any idea what they actually use it for?  Or what they say they use it for? 

It is basically a law enforcement tool.

I have a friend who's retired HPD, worked in forensics with firearms.  He says he used the information, albeit rarely, to locate someone with a particular type of gun so he could perform ballistics / forensics tests. 

It is basically a law enforcement tool.

Except that it's never been used to help solve a crime, or at least that's the info I've been given from a reliable source....